
CERO 



ORATORY AND ORATORS 



HIS LETTERS TO QUINTUS AND BRUTUS. 



TBANSIiAIED OB EDITED 



BY J.' S,' WATSON. 



LONDON: 

BELL & DALDY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 

1871. 



^-^^s^ 

-j\\>^-^ 



LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET 
AND CHARING CROSS. 



PREFACE. 



A Translation of the Dialogues Be Oratore was published 
m 1762, bj George Barnes, a Barrister of the Inner Temple. 
Mr. Barnes's version was made with great care, and, though 
less known than Guthrie's, was far superior to it. If he 
occasionally mistook the sense of his author, he seems to 
have been always diligent in seeking for it. He added some 
notes, of which those deemed worth preserving are distin- 
gaished by the letter B. 

Barnes's translation is the groundwork of the present; 

■ but every page of it has been carefully corrected, 9,nd many 
pagT^ re-written. The text to which it is made conformable 
is thait of Orellius, which differs but little from EUendt's, the 
morel recent editor and illustrator of the work, from whom 
some uotes have been borrowed. 

No \labour has been spared to produce a faithful and 
readable translation of a treatise which must always be 
interestjing to the orator and the student. 

! The ) translation of Cicero's '^'Brutus; or, Remarks on 
EmineLv' Orators," is by E. Jones, (first published in 1776,) 
which r:as long had the well-deserved reputation of com- 

I bining fidelity with elegance. It is therefore reprinted with 

j but little variation. 

I J. S. W. 

I b 



CONTENTS. 



Cicero's Lettees to his Brother Quintus . 1 

Cicero's Letters to Brutus . 90' 

DE OIIATOEE-; or, on the Character of an Orator . . 142 

BRUTUS ; or, Eemarks on Eminent Orators 402 



^^?W^ >^e^/^iy^^^ 



CICEEO'S LETTERS 




HIS BEOTHER QUINTUS. 



BOOK I. 



LETTER I. 

This Letter was written in the year 694 a.u.c, in tlie consulship of 
Afranius and Metellus, by Cicero to his brother Quintus, who 
was commanding in Asia, to inform him that his period of command 
was extended for a third year ; a year fraught with such im- 
portant events to the republic, that we learn from Horace that 
PoUio began his history of the civil wars from this date.^ The 
consuls themselves were men of no very great importance; they 
were both creatures of Pompey, who had assisted them to obtain 
the office by the most open corruption : but he was mistaken in 
reckoning on the adherence of Metellus, whom he had offended by 
divorcing his sister Mucia ; while Afranius was a man of no character, 
and of very moderate abilities ; so weak, according to Cicero, as 
to be ignorant of the value of the consulship which he had bought. ^ 
With such men for its rulers, the city speedily became a scene of 
universal dissension. Pompey, who had just celebrated his triumph 
over Mithridates with unprecedented magnificence, was instigating 
Flavius, one of the tribunes, to bring forward an agrarian law similar 
to that of E-uUus, for a division of lands in Italy, — partly consisting 
of some of the public domains, and partly of estates to be bought 



Motum ex Metello consule civicum 
Bellique causas, et vitia, et modos, 
Ludumque Fortunse, gravesque 
Principum amicitias, et arma 
Nondum expiatis uncta cruoribus; 
Periculosss plenum opus alese 
Tractas. — Hor. Carm. IL i. 
5p. ad Att. i. 19. 

B 



2 CICERO's LETTERS 

"witli the spoils of the war in which he had been so victorious, — among 
the veterans of his army, and the poorer classes in Italy. The 
senate opposed this measure violently, but Cicero, though he had 
resisted the former proposition, was now inclined to support 
this, — taking care, indeed, to preserve the vested interests of the 
possessors; and thinking that when this was provided for, the bill 
would supply a means for relieving the city of some of its most 
dangerous inhabitants, and at the same time peopling parts of Italy 
which were hitherto little better than a desert/^ No doubt he was 
partly influenced by his desire to obtain the protection of Pompey in 
the struggle which he foresaw for himself with Clodius, who was now 
seeking to be adopted into a plebeian family, in order to be elected 
a tribune of the people, so as to attack Cicero with greater power of 
injuring him — for the great Catulus died at this time, and Cicero 
complains to Atticus, that his death had left him without an ally 
in the dangers which threatened him, and without a companion in 
his course of defending and upholding the interests of the nobles.^ 

About the beginning of this year also, news arrived from Gaul of com- 
motions in that province, which was always in great danger from the 
frequent inroads of the Helvetii, from whom an invasion on a larger 
scale was now apprehended. The senate decreed that the consuls 
should undertake the defence of the Cisalpine and Transalpine pro- 
vinces, and sent men of consular rank to different districts to levy 
armies ; but Pompey and Cicero remained at Rome, being, as he tells 
Atticus, retained by the express command of the senate, as pledges 
of the safety of the republic.^ 

In the meantime Caesar, who had been serving in Spain as propraetor, 
wrote letters to the senate to demand a triumph ; but wishing also to 
obtain the consulship for the succeeding year, he relinquished the idea 
of the triumph, (which would have prevented him from entering the 
city till after its celebration,) in order to canvass the citizens for 
the more substantial honour. Perceiving, on his arrival in Rome, 
the true posture of affairs, — the power which Crassus possessed, de- 
rived from his character and riches ; the authority with which 
his military renown, and his position as the acknowledged leader 
of the aristocratic party, invested Pompey; and his own need 
of such coadjutors for the project, which he had already begun to 
coirceive, of finally making himself master of the republic, — he re- 
conciled Pompey and Crassus, who had previously been on no very 
friendly terms ; and then formed that intimate connexion with them 
both, which is known in history as the first triumvirate ; the three 
chiefs coming to an agreement to prevent measures of any kind 
being adopted in the republic without the united consent of them 
all. Csesar obtained the consulship, but the senate gave him Bibulus 
for his colleague, and made a further attempt to prevent any great 
increase to his power or popularity, by assigning to the new consul? 



^ Qu4 constitute diligenter et sentinam nobis exhaurior; et Italia 
solitudinem frequentari posse arbitrabar. — Ep. ad Att. i. 19- 
=» Ep. ad Att. i. 20. s i^q^^^ i 19, 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 6 

only the supervision of the roads and forests : a charge, as Suetonius 
calls it, of the slightest possible importance. 
This was the posture of affairs at Eome, afc, and soon after, the time 
when Cicero addressed this first letter to his brother. 

Marcus to his brother Quintus, greeting. 

I. 1. Although I had no doubt that iijany messengers, and 
common report too, with its invariable rapidity, would out- 
strip this letter; and that, before its arrival, you would hear 
from others that a third year has been added to the period 
during which I have to regret your absence, and you are to 
continue your labours; still I thought that direct informa- 
tion of this trouble ought to be conveyed to you from me 
also. For in my former letters, — and that not once only, but 
repeatedly, even after the matter was despaired of by others, 
— I still gave you hope of an early removal; not merely that I 
might gratify you as long as possible with the pleasing expec- 
tation, but also because such great exertions were made both 
by the praetors and by myself, that I would not give up all 
hope that the matter might be managed. 

2. But now, since it has so turned out, that the praetors 
have not been able to do any good by their influence, nor 
I by my own zeal, it is extremely difficult to avoid feeling 
great vexation ; but still it is not fit that our spirits, w^hich 
have been tried in managing and supporting matters of the 
greatest moment, should be crushed and rendered powerless 
by a petty annoyance. And since men are naturally most 
concerned at misfortunes which have been incurred by their 
own fault, there is something in this business that must be 
borne with more vexation by me than by you. For it hap- 
pened through my fault, and through acting in opposition to 
what you had represented to me, both when setting out and 
afterwards by letter, that a successor was not appointed the 
year before. In that matter, while I was consulting the 
safety of the allies, while I was resisting the impudence of 
some commercial people, and while I was desirous that my 
reputation should be advanced by your merit, I acted 
unwisely ; especially as I have given occasion that that second 
year of your command may draw on a third after it. 

3. Since, then, I confess that the fault is mine, it will be the 
task of your wisdom and kindness to take care and manage 
that this matter, too incautiously considered by me, may be 

b2 



4: CICERO S LETTERS 

corrected by your own diligence. And if you arouse yourself 
with fresh energy to cultivate a good reputation in every 
respect, so as to rival, not others, but yourself ; if you direct 
all the faculties of your mind, all your care and thoughts, to 
the pre-eminent object of obtaining praise in all things, — take, 
my word for it lliat one year added to your Labour will bring 
happiness for many years to us, and glory to our posterity. 

4. I therefore entreat you above all things not to diminish 
or lower your spirit, nor to allow yourself to be overwhelmed 
by the magnitude of the affair, as by a wave of the sea ; but, 
on the other hand, to bear yourself erect to resist, and even 
of your own accord to meet difficulties. For you do not 
manage a department of the public of such a nature that for- 
tune has the rule in it, but one in which method and dili- 
gence have the greatest influence. If indeed I saw that your 
period of command was prolonged while you were engaged 
in any great and perilous war, I should feel misgivings in 
my mind, because I should know at the same time that the 
power of fortune over us was also prolonged. 

5. But at present, that part of the commonwealth is com- 
mitted to you, in which fortune has no share, or only an ex- 
ceedingly insignificant one, and which appears to me to 
depend wholly on your own virtue and moderation of dispo- 
sition. We apprehend, I think, no insidious attacks of 
enemies, no struggle in the field, no revolt of our allies, no 
want of pay or provisions, no mutiny in the army ; accidents 
which have very often happened to men of the greatest pru- 
dence: so that, as the most skilful pilots cannot overcome the 
violence of a storm, they in like manner have been unable to 
subdue the violent hostility of fortune. To your lot has 
fallen the most complete peace, the most entire tranquillity, 
though in such a way that it may even ^ overwhelm a sleeping 
pilot, or even delight a wakeful one. 

6. For that province of yours consists in the first place of 
that class of allies which is the most civilized of all the human 
race ; and secondly, of that class of citizens who either, be- 
cause they are farmers of the revenue,^ are bound to us by 

^ Vel, Ernesti condemns this word, and I^Iatthise has ejected it. 

^ The farmers of the public revenue were generally of the equestrian 
order, to which Cicero himself belonged ; and in his public character 
and speeches he had always taken care to maintain the connexion, by 
Beizing every opportunity of extolling and defending them. 




TO HIS BROTHER QUI^'TUS. 5 

ties of the closest connexion, or who, because they manage 
their deaUngs so as to become wealthy, think that they pos- 
sess their fortunes in safety through the beneficial effects ol 
my consulship. 

11. 7. But, you will urge, between these very men them- 
selves there are grave disputes : many injuries arise, and great 
contests follow; as if I supposed that you also do not sustain 
a considerable weight of business. I am aware that your 
affairs are of very great importance, and require consummate 
prudence; but remember that I consider this affair depends 
more upon prudence than upon fortune ; for what difficulty 
is there in restraining those over whom you have authority, 
if you also restrain yourself? This may be a great and 
arduous task for others, as it is indeed most arduous, but 
it has always been a very easy one for you ; and in truth so 
it ought to be, since your natural disposition is such that, 
even without instruction, it would appear that it might have 
been excellently regulated, and such an education has been 
bestowed upon it as might exalt even the most vicious natura. 
While you yourself resist the temptations of money and of 
pleasure, and of every sort of desire, as you do resist them, 
there will be, I suppose, danger lest you may not be able to 
check the worthless trader, or the somewhat too covetous 
farmer. The Greeks,"- indeed, will look upon you, while you 
live in such a manner, as some [hero revived] from the old 
traditions of their annals, or even as some divine being 
descended from heaven into the province. 

8. And I write this now, not that you may act thus, [for 
that you do,] but that you may rejoice in acting and having 
acted thus. For it is a glorious thing for you to have lived 
three ^ years in Asia, invested with the highest military- au- 
thority, in such a manner that no statue, no picture, no vase,^ 

^ Cicero calls them Greeks, because all the coast of Asia Minor was 
colonized by Greeks, and the language had gradually come to prevail 
throughout the whole peninsula. 

2 The text has triennium ; Ernesti and others would read hiennium, 
to suit the commencement of the letter ; a change rendered necessary, 
indeed, by the verb fuisse. 

^ How irresistible such temptations were to Roman governors in 
general, may be seen in Cicero's orations against V erres ; who was pro- 
bably only pre-eminent among them for rapacity, because the richness 
of his province gave him pre-eminent opportunities for displaying it. 



b CICEriOS LETTERS 

no present of robes or slaves, no allurement of personal 
beanty, no opportunity of extorting money, (of all which 
forms of corruption that province is most prolific,) has been 
able to turn you aside from perfect integrity and moderation. 

9. And what can be found so admirable, or so thoroughly 
desirable, as that that virtue, that moderation of mind, that 
well-regulated abstinence, should not lie hid and be buried 
in darkness, but should be displayed in the light of Asia, 
and before the eyes of a most splendid province, and cele- 
brated in the hearing of every nation and people on the earth ? 
That men should not be alarmed at your progresses, or 
exhausted by your expenses, or agitated at your arrival 
among them ; but that, wherever you come, there should 
be both publicly and privately the greatest possible joy, while 
every city looks upon itself as entertaining a protector, not 
a tyrant, and every family feels that it receives a guest, and 
not a plunderer ? 

III. 10. But in all these matters experience itself has 
already, doubtless, taught you, that it is by no means enough 
for you to have these virtues yourself, but that you must also 
take dihgent care, in this guardianship of the province, that 
you may appear to be answerable, not for yourself only, but 
for all the officers under your government, to the allies, to 
your fellow- citizens, and to the commonwealth. Although 
indeed you have lieutenants of such a character that they 
will of themselves have regard to their own dignity ; among 
whom Tubero is the first in honour and dignity and age, — a 
man who, I imagine, especially as he is a writer of history, can 
find many in the annals of his own family whom he may be 
both inclined and able to imitate ; and Alienus is completely 
one of us, not only in his general disposition and benevolence, 
but also in his imitation of our habits of life. For why need 
I speak of Gratidius? a man whom I know for certain to be 
so anxious about his own character, that out of his brotherly 
love for us, he is anxious also about ours. 

11, You have a quaestor, indeed, not chosen by your own 
judgment, but the one whom the lot assigned you. It is 
necessary that he should be moderate in his own inclinations, 
and obedient to your regulations and precepts. If by chance 
any one of these men be somewhat sordid, you may bear with 
him so far as he merely neglects, of himself, those rules by 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 7 

which you yourself are bound j but not so far that he should 
abuse, for his own private gain^ that power which you con- 
ceded to him for the support of his dignity : for I am not 
indeed of opinion, especially as the habits to which I allude 
have had such a tendency to excessive lenity and to a courting 
of popularity, that you should look too closely into every bit 
of meanness, and get rid of every one guilty of it; but I 
think that you should trust just so much to each as there is 
trustworthiness in each. And of these men, those whom the 
republic itself has assigned to you as supporters and assistants 
in the discharge of the public business, you will confine to 
those limits which I have already laid down. 

TV. 12. But as to those whom you have selected to have 
about you as your domestic companions^ or your necessary 
attendants, and who are generally termed a sort of court of 
the praetor, not only their actions, but even their whole 
language, must be answered for by us. But you have such 
people about you as you can easily love if they act rightly, 
and with the greatest ease restrain, if they show too little 
regard for your character ; by whom, when you were inex- 
perienced, your own ingenuous disposition seems likely to have 
been deceived ; for the more virtuous any one is himself, the 
more unwillingly does he suspect others of being wicked ; but 
now this third year of office should display the same integrity 
as those preceding, with even more caution and diligence. 

13. Let your ears be such as are thought to hear openly 
what they do hear, and not such as those into which anything 
may be whispered falsely and hypocritically for the sake of 
gain. Let your signet ring be not like a piece of furniture, 
but as it were another self; not the agent of another person's 
will, but the witness of your own. Let your sergeant^ be 
kept in that station in which our ancestors wished him to be; 
who bestowed the place not as a lucrative appointment, but as 
one of labour and duty, and not readily to any but their own 
freedmen, to whom they gave their orders, indeed, in a man- 
ner not very different from that in which they gave them to 

^ The Latin is accensus, which was the name of a piiblic officer 
attending on several of the Eoman magistrates. He anciently preceded 
the consul who had not the fasces; a custom which, having been 
long disused, was restored by Caesar the very next year. Varro de- 
rives this title from accieo, because they summoned the people to the 
assemblies. 



8 Cicero's letters 

their slaves. Let your lictor be the officer, not of his own 
lenity, but of yours; and let your fasces and axes give him 
greater insignia of dignity than power. Lastly, let it be 
known to the whole province, that the safety, the families, 
the fame, and the fortunes of all those over whom you 
act as governor, are objects of the dearest interest to you. 
Moreover, let the opinion prevail, that you will be dis- 
pleased, not only with those who have accepted any bribe, 
but with those also w^ho have given one, if you discover the 
fact. Nor indeed will any one offer a bribe, when it is once 
clearly ascertained, that nothing is ever obtained from you 
by the influence of those who pretend to have great weight 
with you. 

14. Not, indeed, that this advice of mine to you is meant 
to have such an effect as to make you too harsh or suspicious 
towards your officers ; for if there be among them any one 
who during two years has never fallen under any suspicion of 
avarice, (as I hear that both Csesius and Chserippus and 
Labeo have not, and because I know them, I believe it;) there 
is nothing that I should not think might be most judiciously 
and properly committed to them, and to whoever else is of the 
same character; but if there be any one in whom you have 
detected anything, or in whom you have noticed anything 
unfavourable, trust him with nothing ; do not put any part of 
your own character in his power. 

/ Y. 15. But in the province itself, if you have met with 
any one who has entered closely into friendship with you, 
and who was previously unknown to us, take great care 
how far you ought to trust such a one ; not but that there 
may be many honest men among the provincials ; but though 
we may entertain this hope, it is hazardous to judge that it is 
so ; for the natural character of each individual is concealed 
under numerous wrappings of disguise, and shrouded, as it 
were, under veils ; the forehead, the eyes, the whole counte- 
nance are often false, and the language most frequently of all. 
On which account, how are you to find out, among that 
class of men, persons who, influenced by desire for money, 
can yet do without all those things from which we cannot 
separate ourselves, and who will love you, a foreigner, with 
all their heart, and not pretend to do so merely for their own 
advantage ? To me indeed this seems a consideration of 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 9 

great importance, especially if those very same people scarcely 
ever profess a regard for any private individnal, but do so 
at all times for every governor ; therefore, if of this class you 
have by chance met with any one really more attached to 
yourself than to the opportunity, (for this may have been 
possible,) gladly count that man in the list of your friends j 
but if you do not discover such a disposition, there is no 
sort of men more carefully to be guarded against in respect to 
intimacy; because they are acquainted with every avenue 
of corruption, and do everything for the sake of money, and 
have no notion of regard for the character of a man with 
whom they are not going to live permanently. 

16. And even among the Greeks themselves, intimacies 
must be formed with strict care, excepting [those with] a 
very few men, such as may be worthy of ancient Greece ; so 
deceitful, indeed, are the greater number of them, and fickle, 
and through long slavery inured to excessive flattery; the 
whole body of whom I admit ought to be treated with libe- 
rality, and all the most deserving of them admitted to hos- 
pitality and friendship ; but an excessive intimacy with them 
is not sufficiently to be trusted, for they do not dare to oppose 
our inclinations, and are envious, not only of our people, but 
also of their own countrymen. 

VI. 17. If I then desire to be so cautious and diligent in 
matters of that sort, in which I am afraid lest I may appear 
even somewhat over-rigid ; of what opinion do you conceive 
me to be with respect to slaves'? whom indeed we ought to 
rule strictly everywhere, and most especially in the provinces. 
With respect to this class of persons, many rules may be 
given, but this is the shortest of all, and one which may the 
most easily be kept in memory, that they are to behave 
themselves in your Asiatic progresses, as they would if you 
were travelling along the Appian road,^ and that they are not 
to think that it makes any difference whether they arrive at 
Tralles or at Formiee. But if among your slaves there should 
be any one of exemplary fidelity, let him be employed in your 
domestic and private affairs ; but as to matters which relate 
to the duties of your command, or to any of the affairs of the 

' The Via Appia, or Appian road, was made by Appius Claudiua 
Caecus as censor, about 442 a.u.c., from Rome to Capua. At a later 
yeriod it was continued from Capua to Brundusium. 



10 Cicero's letters 

commonwealth, let him have no concern with any of them : 
for there are many things which may without impropriety be 
entrusted to faithful slaves, but which, for the sake of avoid- 
ing talk and censure, must not be entrusted to them. 

18. But this letter of mine, I know not how, has run into 
a process of laying down precepts, though such was not at 
first my intention. For why should I give precepts to one, 
whom, particularly in business of this kind, I know to be not 
at all inferior in prudence to myself, and in practice even 
superior? But still if my authority were added to enforce 
the line of conduct which you were already pursuing, I 
thought that such line of conduct would be more agreeable 
to you. Let these then be your foundations for dignity of 
character ; first of all, your own personal integrity and mode- 
ration; next, self-respect in all those who are about you; 
and, also, an extremely cautious and most diligent selection 
in forming intimacies, both with men of the province, and 
with Greeks ; and the maintenance of a steady and consistent 
discipline in yoiir household. 

19. As these observances are honourable in our private 
and daily habits, they must of necessity appear almost divine 
in so high a command, amid manners so depraved, and in 
a province which is such a school of corruption. Such a 
system and such a discipline can maintain that severity in 
deciding and determining on measures, which you have dis- 
played in things from which, to my great joy, we experience 
some enmity; unless perchance you fancy that I am moved 
by the complaints of I know not what fellow called Paconius, 
a person who is not even a Greek, but rather a Mysian or 
Phrygian, or by those of Tuscenius, a raving fellow, foul in 
his language, out of whose most impure jaws you wrested the 
prey of his most disgraceful covetousness with consummate 
justice. 

YII. 20. These and other regulations, full of strictness, 
which you have appointed in that province, we could not 
easily maintain without the most complete integrity. Let 
there be the most rigorous severity, therefore, in administer- 
ing the law, provided that it be never varied from favour, 
but observed with uniformity. But still it is of little benefit 
that the law be administered with uniformity and care by 
you yourself, unless the same rule of conduct be also observed 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 11 

by those to whom you entrust any share of the same duty. 
And to me, indeed, there appears to be no great variety of 
business in the government of Asia, but it seems to be all 
supported, for the most part, by the exposition of the law; 
in which, above all other things, the very system of knowledge 
for the regulation of a province lies. But consistency must 
be observed, and a dignified gravity, which can resist, not 
only all influence, but even suspicion. 

21. There is to be added likewise affability in listening to 
othei-^, gentleness in pronouncing one's decisions, and diligence 
in satisfying people, and in discussing their claims. It was by 
such qualifications that Cneius Octavius lately became very 
popular, as it was under him that the lictor first had nothing 
to do, the sergeant was reduced to silence, and every one who 
had a suit before him spoke as often and as long as he 
pleased. In which particulars he might perchance be looked 
upon as too remiss, if this very remissness had not been the 
support of that severity. Sylla's men were compelled to make 
restitution of the things which they had taken away by 
violence, a,nd through the influence of fear; and those who 
in their offices had given unjust decisions, had, when reduced 
to the rank of private individuals, to bow beneath similar 
law. This severity of his might appear to have been in- 
tolerable, had it not been softened by many seasonings of 
humanity. 

22, But if this kind of lenity is agi'eeable at Rome, where 
there is such excessive arrogance, such immoderate liberty, 
such boundless licentiousness among men; and besides such 
a number of magistrates, so many sources of help, such great 
power, such absolute authority belonging to the senate ; how 
attractive surely may the courtesy of a praetor be in Asia, in 
which such a multitude of citizens, such a number of allies, 
so many cities, and so many states, look to the nod of one 
man ; where there is no help, no power of making complaints, 
no senate, no assembly of the people! It is therefore the 
part of a very great man, and of one who is both moderate 
by natural disposition, and who has also been trained by 
education, and by the study of the most excellent accomplish- 
ments, to conduct himself, when invested with so great 
power, in such a manner that no other authority may be 
wished for by those over whom he is appointed governor. 



12 Cicero's letters 

VIII. 23. The ^^ Cyrus" of Xenophon is written not iu 
accordance with the truth of history, -but to exhibit a represen- 
tation of a just government; in whose character the greatest 
gravity is united by that philosopher with singular courtesy. 
These books our own countryman, the illustrious Africanus, 
was accustomed, not without reason, scarcely ever to lay out 
of his hand, for in them is omitted no duty belonging to 
careful and moderate government; and if he, who was never 
to become a private individual, paid such attention to those 
precepts, how ought they to be observed by those to whom 
authority has been given on condition of laying it down 
again, and given them too by those laws to the observance of 
which they themselves must again return? 

24. To me, indeed, everything seems necessary to be re- 
ferred, by those who rule others, to this principle, that those 
who shall be under their government may be as happy as 
possible; an object which has been established by unvarying 
fame, and the report of all men, as being of primary import- 
ance with you, and as having been so from the commence- 
ment, since you first arrived in Asia. And it is the duty, 
not only of the man who governs allies and fellow-citizens, 
but even of him who manages slaves, or dumb animals, to 
have a regard to the comforts and advantage of those beings 
over whom he presides. 

25, In this respect I find it agreed by all men that the 
greatest assiduity is exerted by you; that no new debt is 
contracted by any state, and that many cities have been freed 
by you from old, great, and heavy debt; that many cities 
previously in ruins and almost deserted, among which I may 
mention one, the most eminent city of Ionia, another, the 
most eminent city of Caria, Samos and Halicarnassus, have 
been restored by you; that there are no seditions in the 
towns, no discord; that provision is made by you that the 
different states shall be regulated by the counsels of the 
most respectable citizens; that depredations in Mysia are 
stopped ; that bloodshed has been suppressed in many places ; 
that peace is established throughout the whole province ; that 
not only the thefts and robberies on the roads and in the 
fields, but the more numerous and greater ones in the towns 
and in the temples, are brought to an end throughout the 
country; that that most spiteful minister to the avarice of 



TO HIS BROTHER QUIXTUS. 13 

governors, false accusation, has been repelled in its attacks on 
the fame and fortune and ease of the wealthy; that the ex- 
penses and tributes levied on the different cities are borne 
-svith equanimity by all who inhabit the territories of those 
cities; that access to you is most easy; that your ears are 
open to the complaints of all men; that no man's poverty or 
desolateness is excluded by you, not merely from access to 
you in public and on the tribunal, but even from your house^ 
and your private chamber; that, in short, throughout your 
whole government, there is nothing severe, nothing cruel; 
but that everything is full of clemency, and gentleness, and 
humanity. 

IX. 26. Again, how great a benefit is it on your part, that 
you have delivered Asia from that iniquitous and heavy tax 
imposed upon it by the sediles,^ though at the expense of 
great enmity to us. In truth, if one man of noble birth 
makes a complaint openly that you, by issuing an edict " that 
money should not be voted for the games at Eome," caused 
him a loss of two hundred sestertia; how great a sum of 
money must have been paid, if, as had become the custom, 
it was exacted in the name of all, whoever they were, that 
exhibited games at Eome*? Although we checked these com- 
plaints of our citizens with this desigTi, (which is extolled in 
Asia, I know not to what extent, and at Eome with no ordi- 
nary admiration.) inasmuch as when the cities had voted sums 
of money to erect a temple and monument in our honour, 
and when they had done so of their own extreme good-will, 
in return for my great services, and for your excessive kind- 
nesses, and when the law made an exception in our favour by 
name, providing that '- it might be permitted to receive money 
for a temple and a monument;" and that which was then 
given was not likely to perish, but to remain among the 
ornaments of the temple, so as to appear to have been given, 
not more for my sake than that of the Eoman people and the 
immortal gods ; nevertheless I did not think that even that, in 
which concurred merit, a special law, and the good-wiU of 
those who made it, ought to be accepted by me, both for 

^ The expense of the games exhibited by the ^ediles had grown to be 
so enormous that they had established a custom of extorting vast sums 
from the provinces to meet it. The exact sum mentioned in the text 
would be 161,4:obl 6s. M. 



14 CIGERO'S LETTERS 

other reasons, and in order that others to whom nothing was 
due, and in whose favour no permission was given, might bear 
the matter with more equanimity. 

27. Apply yourself, therefore, with all your heart and with 
all your zeal to the course of conduct which you have hitherto 
pursued, that you may love, and in every way protect, those 
whom the senate and people of Eome have committed and 
entrusted to your good faith and power, and that you may 
take thought for their being as happy as possible. But if 
chance ^ had set you over Africans, or Spaniards, or Gauls, 
savage and barbarous nations, it would still have become-your 
humanity to consult their advantage, and to show a regard 
for their comfort and safety. Since, however, we govern that 
race of mankind, among whom not only humanity itself pre- 
vails, but from whom it is even thought to have spread to 
other nations, we certainly ought, in the greatest possible 
degree, to exhibit it to those from whom we received it. 

28. For I shall not now be ashamed to assert this, (espe- 
cially amidst such a course of life, and after performing such 
actions, on which no suspicion of indolence or levity can affix 
itself,) that we have attained those successes which we have 
achieved, by the aid of those studies and arts which have 
been handed down to us by the records and discipline of 
Greece. On those accounts, besides that common good faith 
which is due to all mankind, we also appear to be in an 
especial manner the debtors of that race of men, so that we 
may show a readiness to display in action those principles in 
which we have been instructed before that very people from 
which we have learned them. 

X. 29. And, indeed, that chief of all genius and learning, 
Plato, thought that republics would then at last become happy, 
if either learned and wise men began to govern them, or 
if those who governed them devoted all their attention to 
learning and wisdom. This union of power and wisdom he 
assuredly thought would be security to a state; a union 
which may have at some time fallen to the lot of our whole 
republic, but which has certainly, at this present time, 
fallen to that province of yours; so that he might have the 
chief power in it, by whom, from his childhood, the most 

^ The Latin is sors, lot. The different Koman magistrates had their 
provinces assigned to them by' lot. 



TO HIS BUOTHER QUINTUS. 



15 



study aiKl time has been bestowed on acquiring a thorough 
understanding of yirtue and humanity. 

30. Be careful, therefore, that this year which is added to 
your labour may appear at the same time to have been added 
for the prosperity of Asia. Since Asia has been more for- 
tunate in her efforts to detain you than we have been in ours 
to recal you, take care that our regret may be mitigated by 
the gladness of the province. For if you have been the most 
diligent of all men in deserving that such great honours 
should be paid to you as I know not whether any one has 
received, you ought to exert far greater diligence in preserving 
those honours. 
' 31. I have, indeed, written to you before w^hat I think of 
honours of that kind. I have always thought them, if they 
were common, worthless; if they were appointed for some 
temporary occasion, trifling: but if, as has been the case 
now, they were granted to your merits, I thought that 
much exertion should be used by you to preserve them. 
Since, therefore, you reside wdth supreme power and authority 
in those cities in w^hich you see your virtues consecrated and 
ranked in the number of [those of] the gods, in everything 
which you shall determine, or decree, or do, you will recol- 
lect what you owe to such high opinions of mankind, such 
favourable judgment concerning you, such exalted honours. 
This resolution will be of such influence, that you wull consult 
the welfare of all, w^ill remedy the distresses of the people, 
and provide for their safety, and that you will wish to be both 
called and thought the father of Asia. 

XI. 32. No doubt the farmers of the public revenue offer 
great obstacles to your desires and efforts. But if we oppose 
them, we shall separate both from ourselves and from the 
republic an order of men w^hich deserves well of ourselves per- 
sonally, and which is by our means attached to the republic. 
Yet, if we comply with their wishes in everything, we shall be 
allowing those persons to be utterly ruined, not only whose 
safety, but whose advantage, we are bound to consult. This, 
if we would form a correct judgment, is the one difficulty 
which pervades your whole government. For to be disin- 
terested, to restrain all one's desires, to keep a check upon 
one's people, to maintain an equitable system of law, to show 
oneself courteous in inquiring into matters of business, and 



16 CICERO'S LETTERS 

affable in listening and giving access to people, is honourable 
rather than difficult : for it does not depend on any labour, 
but rather on a certain inclination and willingness of mind. 

33. How great distress the line of conduct adopted by the 
farmers causes the allies, we have learned from those citizens 
of our own, who lately, in the matter of the removal of the 
harbour-dues of Italy, complained not so much of the tax 
itself, as of certain wrongs committed by the tax-collectors. 
So that I cannot be ignorant what of happens to the allies in 
remote districts, when I hear the complaints of my own 
countrymen in Italy, That you should so conduct yourself, 
in such circumstances, as both to satisfy the farmers, (espe- 
cially if they made an unlucky contract for the revenues,) and 
not to allow the allies to be ruined, appears an achievement 
worthy of some divine virtue, that is, of your own. 

And in the first place, that which to the Greeks is a most 
bitter consideration, namely, that they are liable to pay taxes, 
ought not to appear so bitter; because, without any inter- 
ference of the power of the Roman people, while they lived 
under their own laws, they were themselves, and of them- 
selves, in the same condition; and they have no right to 
disdain the name of farmer, as they themselves could not pay 
the tax which Sylla had, with perfect fairness, levied upon 
them, without a farmer. And that, in exacting the taxes, the 
Greek farmers are not more lenient than our own, may be 
seen from this fact, that a little while ago the Caunians, and 
all the inhabitants of the islands which had been made over 
to the Rhodians by Sylla, fled to the senate with entreaties to 
be allowed to pay tribute to us rather than to the Rhodians. 
Those, therefore, have no right to express any horror of the 
name of farmer, who have always been liable to the payment 
of taxes ; nor ought those who by themselves could not pay 
the taxes, to disdain him; nor ought those to object to him, 
who have actually asked for his appointment. 

34. Let Asia at the same time recollect, that no calamity 
of foreign war, or of domestic dissension, would have been 
absent from her, if she were not held under the dominion 
of this country. And as that dominion can by no means be 
upheld without taxes, let her contentedly purchase for herself 
perpetual peace and tranquillity with a certain portion of her 
revenues. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 17 

XII. 35, ' And^ if they will endure that class of men, and 
the name of farmer, with patience, other grievances, through 
your wisdom and prudence, may possibly appear lighter to 
them. They may, in making contracts, regard, not the mere 
Censorian law,^ but rather the convenience of transacting 
business, and their freedom from trouble. You, too, may do, 
what you have already done admirably, and what you still 
are doing, namely, to take frequent occasions to mention how 
great worth there is in the farmers, and how much we owe to 
that order ; so that, laying aside authority, and the exertion 
of power and of the fasces, you may bind the farmers to the 
Greeks by affection and influence. But you may also beg of 
those of whom you have deserved extremely well, and who 
indeed owe everything to you, to allow us, by good-temper 
on their part, to secure and maintain that connexion which 
already exists between us and the farmers. 

36. But why do I exhort you to this course of conduct, 
which you can not only pursue of your own accord without 
directions from any one, but have already to a great extent 
practised ? For highly honourable and important companies 
do not cease to address their thanks to us, and this is the 
more acceptable to me, because the Greeks do the same. 
And it is difficult to unite in good- will those things which in 
interests, utility, and almost in their very nature, are dif- 
ferent from each other. But I have written what is written 
above, not for the purpose of instructing you, (for your 
wisdom stands in need of no instructions from any one,) but 
because, while thus writing, the commemoration of your 
virtues was a pleasure to me, although I have been more 
prolix in this letter than I either intended or expected to be. 

XIII. 37. There is one thing to which I shall not cease 
to exhort you ; nor will I allow your praises to be spoken, as 
far as shall be in my power, with any abatement ; for all who 
come from those regions speak in such a manner of your 
virtue, integrity, and humanity, as to make, among your 
great praises, proneness to anger the only exception. This 

^ The terms on which the revenues of the provinces were let were 
fixed by the censors, in the edicts called Leges CensoricE; but these were 
sometimes modified to raise the credit or popularity of the publicans. 
In the censorship of Cato, 568 a.u.c, the senate itself interfered to lower 
the terms which his rigour had sought to impose. — Liv. xxxix. 44. 

C 



18 CICERO's LETTERS 

fault, even in our private and daily life, appears to be that of 
an unsteady and weak mind; but nothing is so unseemly as 
to unite the acerbity of natural ill-temper to supreme power. 
For this reason I will not now proceed to set before you the 
observations which are commonly made on passionateness, 
both because I am unwilling to be too prolix, and because you 
can easily learn them from the writings of many authors; 
but that which peculiarly belongs to a letter, I mean that he, 
to whom it is written, should be informed of matters of which 
he is ignorant, I think that I ought not to omit. 

38. Every one makes us almost the same report, that, when 
ill-temper does not affect you, nothing can be more agreeable 
than your behaviour; but that, when any one's dishonesty 
or perverseness has provoked you, you become so excited that 
your natural kindness is missed by every one. Since, there- 
fore, it is not so much any thirst for glory as mere circum- 
stances and fortune that have brought us into that station of 
life in which we are, so that the conversation of mankind 
respecting us will be incessant, let us, as far as we can pos- 
sibly achieve and succeed, take care that no remarkable vice 
may be said to have been in us. Nor do I now insist upon 
that which is perhaps difficult in every disposition, and is 
certainly so at our time of life, namely, to change the temper, 
and suddenly to pluck out whatever is deeply implanted in 
the character; but I give you this admonition, that if you 
cannot wholly avoid this habit, because your mind is occu- 
pied by anger before reason can prevent it from being so 
occupied, you should still prepare yourself beforehand, and 
meditate every day that you must resist this proneness to 
anger, and that, when it has the greatest eifect upon your 
mind, your tongue must then be most carefully restrained ; 
for this appears to me at times a virtue not inferior to that 
of never being angry. For the latter is the consequence, 
not merely of gravity of temper, but sometimes even of 
dulness; but to restrain your passion and language when 
you are provoked, or even to be silent, and to keep your 
agitation of mind and indignation under control, although it 
be not a proof of perfect wisdom, is certainly an indication of 
no moderate mental power. 

39. In this respect men report that you have already 
become much more moderate and gentle. No extremely 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 19 

violent bursts of passion, no reproaches, no insults, are 
reported to us ; faults which are not only inconsistent with 
learning and politeness, but at variance with authority and 
dignity : for if our anger is implacable, it is extreme rancour ; 
but if easily appeased, it is extreme levity; which, however, 
in a choice of evils, is to be preferred to rancour. 
\ XIY. 40. But since it was your first year that caused the 
most talk on this subject of censure (I imagine because 
injustice, and avarice, and insolence in men occurred to you 
contrary to your anticipation, and on that account appeared 
intolerable); while the second year was much more quiet, 
because- habit, and reason, and, as I flatter myself, my letters 
also, have rendered you more patient and gentle; the third 
year ought to be so corrected that no one may be able to find 
even the slightest cause for censure in it. 

41. And now, on this topic, I speak to you not with ex- 
hortation and precepts, but with brotherly entreaty, beseech- 
ing you to devote all your thought, care, and meditation 
to securing the praise of all men in all quarters. If our 
rank in life were in a moderate position for talk and dis- 
cussion about us, nothing extraordinary, nothing beyond the 
common conduct of other men, would be required of you: 
but now, by reason of the splendour and importance of the 
circumstances in which we are placed, unless we secure the 
highest possible praise from that province, we seem scarcely 
in a condition to escape extreme censure. Such is our posi- 
tion, that while all good men look with favour on us, they at 
the same time require and expect from us all imaginable 
diligence and virtue; but all the unprincipled, because we 
have engaged in everlasting war against them, seem to be 
contented with the very smallest pretext for censuring us. 

42. Since, therefore, a theatre of such a kind, that of all 
Asia, has been presented for the display of your virtues — 
a theatre crowded with a numerous body of spectators, most 
ample in size, with an audience of most cultivated judgment; 
and so well adapted for sound, that the sense and expressions 
of the actors reach even to Eome ; strive, I entreat you, and 
labour, not only to appear worthy of the circumstances in 
which you are placed, but even superior to them by your 
own good qualities. 

XV. 43. And since, among the different offices of the state, 

c2 



20 Cicero's letters 

chance has assigned to me the domestic administration of the 
repubhc, but to you a provincial government, if my part is 
inferior to none, take care that yours may surpass that of 
others. At the same time reflect that we are not now 
labouring for a reputation as yet unattained, and only ex- 
pected; but that we are striving for the preservation of one 
already earned, which indeed was not so much to be desired 
previously, as it is now to be maintained by us. And if I 
could have any interests separate from yours, I should desire 
for myself nothing more honourable than this position which 
has been already acquired by me. But such is now the state 
of affairs, that unless all your actions and expressions in that 
quarter harmonize with my conduct, I shall think that I 
have gained nothing by such toils and such dangers on my 
part, in all of which you were a sharer. But if you alone, 
above all others, assisted me in obtaining a most honourable 
fame, you will now assuredly strive beyond all others that 
I may retain it. You must not regard only the opinions and 
judgments of men who are now living, but also of those who 
will live hereafter, though indeed their judgment will be more 
just, as being free from all detraction and malevolence. 

44. Lastly, you ought to remember this too, that you are 
not seeking glory for yourself alone j though, even were that 
the case, you would not neglect it, especially when you had 
desired to consecrate the memory of your name by the most 
honourable records ; but it is also to be shared with me, 
and to be handed down to our children. In regard to it, 
therefore, you must take care lest, if you are too remiss, 
you should seem, not merely to have managed ill for yourself, 
but even to have grudged reputation to your relations. 

XVI. 45. These remarks are not made with this view, 
that my words may seem to have roused you when asleep, 
but rather to have given you an impulse while running ; for 
you will always give all men cause, as you have done, to 
praise your equity, your moderation, your strictness, and 
your integrity. But from the singular love which I bear 
you, an insatiable eagerness for your glory possesses me; 
although I am of opinion, that when Asia ought now to be 
as well known to you as his own private house is to every 
man, and when such great experience is added to your excel- 
lent natural sense, there is nothing which can contribute to 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 21 

glory that you do not thoroughly appreciate, and that does 
not present itself daily to your mind without exhortation 
from any one. But I, who, while I read your letters, think 
that I am listening to you, and while I am writing to you, 
think that I am conversing with you, am consequently most 
delighted with your longest letters, and am myself often 
somewhat prolix in addressing you. 

46. In conclusion, I entreat and exhort you, that as good 
poets and careful actors are accustomed to do, so you, at 
the end and termination of your office and administration, 
should be especially careful, that this third year of your 
command may, like the third act of a play,^ appear to be 
the most highly-finished and ornate of the whole. This you 
will do most easily if you shall imagine that I, whom you 
have always desired to please more than all the rest of the 
world, am always present with you, and take part in every- 
thing which you shall say and do. 

It only remains for me to beg you to take most diligent 
care of your health, if you wish me and all your friends to be 
well. Farewell. 



LETTER IL 



The following letter was written in the year after Letter I. Caesar had 
begun his contests with the aristocratic party ; and had brought in 
an agrarian law substantially the same as that of Rullus : proposing 
among other enactments, to plant 20,000 colonists in the public 
domain in Campania ; and the appointment of the commissionera 
to superintend the distributions of these lands was to be vested 
in Caesar himself. Cato opposed the bill in the senate, and Csesar 
ordered his lictors to seize him and carry him to prison, though 
he was deterred from executing this menace by the indignation 
of the whole senate. His colleague Eibulus was resolute in his 
opposition; but when he endeavoured to resist the passing of the 
measure in the comitia, he was thrown down the steps of the temple 

^ Why does Cicero say the third act, which is the middle act of a 
play ? Does he mean by acts those three parts of a play to which the 
poets paid so much attention, the protasis, epitasis, and catastrophe, and 
on the last of which they bestowed the utmost art and industry to 
secure the applause of the audience ? He has used the same com- 
parison, in almost the same words, in his Cato. If this explanation 
satisfy the learned, there is no reason why we should read, as has been 
proposed, extremus or ultimus, contrary to the old copies. — Males f-ina. 

Cicero speaks as if Quintus were engaged in a play consisting only of 
three acts; assigning one year to each act. — Fr. Hotomannus. 



22 CICERO's LETTERS 

of Castor and Pollux, his fasces were broken, and he liimself and 
some of his attendants wounded. Caesar now released the farmers 
of the public revenues in Asia from some of the conditions of their 
contracts, with which they were dissatisfied. (See preceding Letter.) 
And on the motion of Vatinius, the province of Cisalpine Gaul and 
Illyricum was assigned to him for five years ; to which Transalpine 
Gaul was afterwards added, through the influence of Pompey, who 
married Julia, Csesar's daughter. Clodius was carrying on the mea- 
sure of his adoption into a plebeian family, and openly threatening 
Cicero with impeachment. The consuls-elect for the ensuing year, 
696 A.U.C., were Aulus Gabinius, and L. Calpurnius Piso, whose 
daughter Caesar had just married. 

Marcus to his brother Quixitus, greeting, 

I. 1. Statius^ arrived at my house on the 25th of October. 
His arrival, as you had written that you should be torn to 
pieces by your people while he was away, was a disagreeable 
one to me. But as it put aside the expectation of yourself, 
and that concourse of people which would have occurred 
if he had departed at the same time with you, and had not 
appeared till you did yourself, it seemed to me to have hap- 
pened not altogether disadvantageously ; for the talk of men 
is now exhausted, and expressions of this kind are uttered 
by many, 

'AAA.' aei riva (pcora [xi'yav,'^ 

which I am glad is accomplished in your absence. 

2. But whereas he seems to have been sent by you for 
the purpose of clearing himself in my opinion, that was not 
at all necessary: for, in the first place, he never was sus- 
pected by me; nor, in what I wrote to you about him, did 
I write on my own judgment : but as the estimation and safety 
of all of us who have joined in the affairs of the common- 
wealth depended not only on truth, but also on reputation, I 

^ A freedman of Quintus Cicero, and one who had had far too much 

influence over him. 

^ The lines in Homer, Od. ix. 513, are — 

'AA.A.' aei riva <p6}ra fxeyav kol KaXbv ehlyfj/qv 
'Ez/0a8' iK^vaeaQai, fjLeydXr}^ eirieLfjieuou olKktiv. 
"Nvu 5e fi €odv oXiyos re koI ovridai/os koI clkikvs 
'0(p6aKiuLov ^ aKaooaej/ iirei [x ida/uLacraaTO otvca. 

Thus translated by Pope : — 

I deem'd some godlike giant to behold. 
Or lofty hero, haughty, brave, and bold ; 
Not this weak pigmy- wretch, of mean design. 
Who not by strength subdued me, but by wine. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 25 

have constantly written to you the reports of others, and 
not my own opinions. How common, indeed, and how un- 
favourable, such reports were, Statius himself learned on his 
arrival ; for he came just in time to hear the complaints of 
certain persons, which were made to me concerning himself, 
and had an opportunity of experiencing that the conversation 
of the disaffected broke forth especially against his name. 

3. But that which used to move me most, was when I 
heard that he had greater influence with you than the gravity 
of your age, or the prudence requisite for such a command 
required ; (for how many people do you think have applied 
to me to recommend them to Statius? how many things do 
you think he has himself made known, without intending it, 
in conversation to the same effect?) that did not please me; 
I warned, advised, deterred you. In such proceedings, even 
if there is the greatest fidelity in him, (as, indeed, I fully 
believe, since such is your opinion of him,) yet the mere 
appearance of a freedman or of a slave having so 'much 
influence over you, can contribute nothing to your dignity. 
And you may be assured, (for I feel bound neither to say 
anything without reason, nor to suppress anything through 
policy.) that Statius has furnished entire matter for the con- 
versation of those who seek to disparage you : previouoly, it 
could only have been understood that some persons were 
offended with your severity; but since he has been emanci- 
pated, there has not been wanting to those who were offended 
a subject on which they might enlarge. 

II. 4. I will now reply to those letters which L. Caesius 
delivered to me, (whom, as I understand that such is your 
wish, I will on no occasion fail to support,) one of which 
relates to Zeuxis of Blandus,^ who, you write, is urgently 
recommended by me to you, while he has most unques- 
tionably murdered his mother. On this subject, and con- 
cerning this whole class of persons, attend to a few words 
from me, lest you should, perchance, be surprised that I am 
become so solicitous of pleasing the Greeks. As I perceived 
that the complaints of the Greeks had too much weight, 
owing to the natural talent of that nation for deceiving, I 
sought to pacify, by every me^ns in my power, whomsoever 
I heard make any complaint of you. In the first place, I 
1 A town of Phrygia. 



24 Cicero's letters 

soothed the people of Dionysopolis, who were most bitter 
enemies of mine; and their chief man, Hermippus, I won 
over, not merely by talking to him, but by admitting him 
to intimacy. I received, with all the courtesy and friend- 
ship in my power, Hephaestus of Apamea, and that most 
contemptible of men, Megaristus of Antandros, and Nicias 
of Smyrna, and all the despicable fellows of the district, even 
Nymphon of Colophon. All this I did, not because those 
men, or their whole nation, gave me any pleasure ; for I am 
thoroughly weary of their levity, their flattery, and their 
minds that regard no duty but merely time-serving. 

5. But, to return to Zeuxis, when he repeated the very same 
things which you write, about a conversation held by Marcus 
Cascellius with him, I objected to what he said, and admitted 
the man to my intimacy. But I know not what strong 
desire there was in you, when you say that you wished, since 
you had sewn up two Mysians in a sack at Smyrna, to give 
a similar example of your severity in the upper part of 
the province, and therefore desired by all means to draw 
forth Zeuxis, — who, if brought before the tribunal, ought 
perhaps not to have been let go ; but it was not necessary 
that he should be sought out and enticed by blandishments, 
as you write, before the court, especially being a man of such 
a character, that I know him, from the reports of his fellow- 
citizens, and, every day more and more, from those of many 
other persons, to be almost of greater respectability than his 
native city. 

6. But, you will say, I am partial to Greeks only. What'? 
did I not pacify Lucius Csecilius by every means in my 
power? and what a man he was I of what anger! of what 
pride ! Whom, indeed, except Tuscenius, whose case cannot 
be mended, have I not pacified 1 There just occurs to me 
Catienus, a fickle and sordid man, though of the equestrian 
order: even he shall be smoothed down. That you were 
somewhat severe to his father, I do not blame you, for I well 
know that you acted with sufficient reason. But what need 
was there of letters of such a character as you sent to him? 
telling him that he was of his own accord erecting a cross for 
himself, from which you had already taken him down ; and 
that you would now take care that he should be burnt alive 
with the applause of the whole province. Again, what did 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINT CIS. 25 

you write to an unknown fellow called Caius Fabius, (for 
Titus Catienus carries about that letter too,) telling him that 
it was reported to you that Licinius, the kidnapper, with his 
young chick of an extortioner, is exacting tribute 1 You 
then ask Fabius to burn both father and son alive if he can, 
and if not, to send them to you, that they may be burnt by 
judicial sentence. These letters, sent doubtless in joke by 
you to Caius Fabius, if indeed they are yours at all, appear, 
when they are read, to contain a barbarity of language cal- 
culated to excite odium. 

7. And if you look back at the precepts contained in all 
my letters, you will see that there is nothing censured by me 
except the bitterness of your language and your proneness 
to anger, and perhaps, in one or two instances, your care- 
lessness as to letters sent by you. If in these matters my 
authority had had a little more influence over you than either 
your own natural disposition, which is somewhat too hasty, 
or a certain pleasure which you find in passionateness, or wit 
and facetiousness in speaking, there would really be nothing 
whatever for us to regret. And do you think that I feel only 
a trifling concern, when I hear in what estimation Vergilius,. 
and your neighbour Caius Octavius, are held? for if you 
prefer yourself to your inland neighbours, the Cilician and 
the Syrian, you do something very great ! And it is a bitter 
feeling, that while those men whom I have mentioned are 
not superior to you in innocence, they yet surpass you in 
the art of conciliating good-will; men who have never read 
either the Cyrus of Xenophon or his Agesilaus, kings from 
whom, though possessed of absolute power, no one ever heard a 
single harsh word. But how much good I have done in recom- 
mending this conduct to you from the first, I am not unaware. 

III. 8. Now however that you are departing, as you seem 
to me to be already doing, leave behind you, I entreat, as 
pleasant a recollection of yourself as possible. You have an 
exceedingly courteous successor. Your other qualities will 
be much regretted on his arrival. In sending letters, as I 
have often written to you, you have shown yourself too easy. 
Put out of the way, if you can, all that are unjust, all that 
are of an unusual character, all that are inconsistent one with 
another. Statins has told me that the letters written to you 
are often brought, and read by him, and that^ if they are 



26 Cicero's letters 

unjust, you are informed of it; but that, before he came to 
you, there was no selection of your letters, though since that 
time there have been rolls of selected letters which commonly 
met with reprobation. 

9. On this subject, indeed, I do not give you any advice 
now, for it is too late, and you must be aware that I have 
given you much advice, in various ways, and with great 
care. Attend to that, however, which I bade Theopompus 
tell you, when I was reminded of the circumstance by himself, 
namely, that by means of men well affected to you, these dif- 
ferent kinds of letters, as is easy, may be put out of the way : 
in the first place, those which are unjust; next, those which 
are contradictory; then those written in an absurd and un- 
usual manner ; and lastly, all that are insulting to any one. 
I do not indeed believe that these are exactly such as they 
are stated to be, and if they have escaped observation through 
the pressure of your business, at least examine them now, and 
get rid of them. I have read a letter which your nomen- 
clator Sylla was said to have written himself, and which 
cannot be approved; I have read some very angry ones. 

10. We will speak, however, of the letters at a fitting 
time. For while I had hold of this page, Lucius Flavins the 
prsetor-elect came in to me, a man with whom I am on terms 
of great intimacy. He told me that you had sent letters to 
his agents which appeared to me most unreasonable, com- 
manding them to take nothing from the property which had 
belonged to Lucius Octavius Naso, to whom Lucius Flavins is 
heir, until they had paid a sum of money to Gains Fundanius ; 
and that you had sent also to the people of Apollonia not to 
allow any portion of the property which had belonged to 
Octavius to be taken away, until the debt due to Fundanius 
was paid. These things do not seem to me to be probable, 
for they are wholly inconsistent with your usual prudence. 
That the heir shall take none of the property ! •* What if he 
demurs 1 What if there is no debt at all owing ? What ! is 
the prsetor accustomed to decide that there is a debt owing ? 
What ! (you will say) shall I not desire to serve Fundanius ? 
Am I not his friend 1 Am I not moved with compassion for 
him 1 — No one more so, but in some cases the path of law is 
of such a character that there is no room for favour. And 
Flavins told me that it was so expressed in that letter which 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 27 

he affirmed to be yours, that you would either give the people 
thanks as your friends, or bring trouble on them as enemies. 

11. In short, he was greatly concerned; he addressed 
vehement complaints to me on the- subject, and entreated me 
to write to you with all the . earnestness possible; as I now 
do, and entreat you most earnestly again and again, to allow 
the agents of Flavins to use their own discretion as to taking . 
the property, and to write nothing to the people of Apollonia 
that is contraiy to the interest of Flavins, and, besides, to do 
everything to gratify Flavins, and consequently Pompey. I 
should, in truth, be reluctant to appear to you over liberal, 
because of your injustice to him; but I entreat you to leave 
of your own accord some authority and some record of a 
decree or paper in your own hand-writing, which may have 
a favourable bearing on the business and cause of Flavins. 
For the man being at the same time one who pays me great 
respect, while he is tenacious of his own rights and dignity, 
is dissatisfied that he had no influence with you, either from 
considerations of friendship or of right. And, I believe, on 
some occasion or other, both Pompey and Csesar recommended 
Flavius's interest to you, and Flavins had written to you 
himself on the subject, and so, I am sure, did I. If, therefore, 
there is any one thing which you think you ought to do at 
my request, let this matter be that one. If you have any 
regard for me, take care, strive, and manage, that Flavins 
may feel all the gratitude possible both to you and to me. I 
ask this of you with such earnestness that I cannot ask any- 
thing with greater solicitude. 

lY. 12. As to what you write to me about Hermias, it 
was indeed a matter of great annoyance to me. I had 
written you a letter, by no means in a brotherly style, which 
I wrote in excessive anger, when I was provoked by a com- 
munication from Diodotus, the freedman of Lucullus, stating 
what I had heard at the moment about the agreement ; and 
I wished to recal it. This letter, written in an unfraternal 
spirit, you ought in a fraternal spirit to forgive. 

13. With respect to Censorinus and Antonius, Cassius 
and Scsevola, I am very glad indeed that you are, as you 
write, beloved by them. The other matters in that letter 
were of a graver character than I wished : 6p6dv rav vavv, 
and liira^ Oaveiv, 



28 OICERO'S LETTERS 

Those matters will be more serious. My reproofs were full 
of affection ; they were not absolutely of no importance, but 
moderate and light. ^ I should never have thought you de« 
serving of the very slightest reprehension in anything, while 
you were conducting yourself with the most rigid propriety, 
if we had not many enemies. Whatever I wrote at all in 
the tone of admonition or reproof, I wrote from the anxiety 
of my caution, in which I still continue, and shall continue, 
and shall not cease to press you to act in a similar way. 

14. Attains the Iphemian has applied to me to prevail on 
you not to hinder the money which has been voted for the 
statue of Quintus Publicenus from being levied; and I do 
beg this of you, and exhort you not to allow the honour of 
a man of such a character, and so intimately connected with 
us, to be at all diminished or obstructed by your means. 
In the next place, Licinius, the slave of iEsop the tragedian, 
my great friend, with whose person you are acquainted, has 
fled; he was at Athens, staying with Patro the Epicurean, 
as a free man : from thence he proceeded into Asia. After- 
wards, a man called Plato, a citizen of Sardis, and an Epi- 
curean, wlio is accustomed to be a good deal at Athens, and 
who was at Athens at the time when Licinius went thither, 
arrested the man, when he subsequently learned from ^sop's 
letters that he was a runaway slave, and delivered him into 
custody at Ephesus ; but whether he put him in the public 
prison, or in the private house of correction, I could not well 
understand from his letter. As he is at Ephesus, I should 
wish you, by some means or other, to search for the man, 
and use all your diligence to bring him over with you. Dc 
not consider of what value he is, for he is of little value 
who has now proved himself worthless ; but -^sop is so con- 
cerned and indignant at the wickedness and audacity of the 
slave, that you can do him no greater favour than to be the 
means of his recovering him. 

V. 15. Attend now to what you are most desirous to hear. 

* This is rather obscure. Manutius interprets it, that the meaning 
of the Greek quotations in the letter which Cicero repented of, was, 
— Let us keep the vessel straight on her course ; if we fail, we 
can die but once. And now he says, the advice which I am giving 
you is of greater consequence than the affairs which impelled me 
then to use that language, in which despondency was mingled with 
reproof. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINT US. 29 

The republic we have utterly lost; insomuch, that Cato, 
a young man of no wisdom, but still a Koman citizen and 
a Cato, scarcely escaped with his life, because, when he was 
resolved to impeach Gabinius for corruption, and the prsetors 
would not grant access for some days, or give him any oppor- 
tunity of addressing them, he made his way to the rostrum, 
and called Pompey a " private dictator." Nothing was ever 
more nearly happening, than that he should be killed. From 
this circumstance you may see what the state of the whole 
republic must be. 

16. Still men are not likely to be wanting to my own 
cause.^ They make professions of adherence to me to a 
wonderful extent, and offer themselves, and make promises. 
In truth, I am in the greatest hopes, and even in greater 
confidence. I hope that we shall get the upper-hand. I 
feel confident that I need fear no misfortune in this state of 
affairs. But still this is the condition of things. If Clodius 
impeaches me, all Italy will throng around me to secure my 
coming off with increased glory; but if he attempts to carry 
his point by violence, I then hope that we shall resist him 
with force, not only through the efforts of our friends, but 
even those of strangers. All men promise me the aid of 
themselves, and their friends, and fireedmen, and slaves, and 
even of their money. Our ancient band of worthies glows 
with zeal and love for me. If in times past any of them 
have been at all alienated, or cool, they now, from hatred 
to these kings,^ unite themselves with the good citizens. 
Pompey promises everything, and so does Csesar; whom I 
trust so far as to abate nothing of my ovv^n preparation. The 
tribunes of the people elect are my friends ; the consuls 
show themselves in a very favourable light. I find the prsetors 
most excellent friends, and most energetic citizens, especially 
Domitius, Nigidius, Memmius, and Lentulus; I find, the 
others^ also good, but these particularly so. Study there- 
fore to cherish much courage and good hope. Of everything, 
however, which takes place from day to day I will keep you 
continually informed. 

^ The attack with which Clodius was threatening him. 

2 The triumvirs. 

^ There were eight prsetors altogether. 



30 Cicero's letters 

LETTER III. 

This letter was written in the next year, 696 A.u.c. Caesar, on the 
expiration of his consulship, did not depart at once for his province, 
but remained outside the city with his legions. Clodius, through hia 
influence, obtained the tribuneship, and having won over the consuls 
by his promises, began a set of revolutionary measures ; introducing 
a bill to limit the power of the censors, and another to restore the 
colleges or guilds which had been suppressed a few years before ; and 
a third to repeal the Lex ^lia Fufia, which gave the consuls a power 
of dissolving the comitia by declaring the auspices unfavourable. 
Having strengthened himself by these measures, he proceeded in his 
'threatened attack upon Cicero. Ctesar offered him one of his Cam- 
panian commissionerships as a means of withdrawing in honour for 
a while ; or a lieutenancy in Gaul under himself ; but he refused 
these offers, trusting to the attachment of the people and Pompey. 
When he found them likely to fail him, he, and the greater part of 
the senate and knights, put on black garments, as a dress of supph- 
cation ; and Cicero made personal application to Piso for his protec- 
tion. At last, in the beginning of April, by the advice of his friends, 
Cicero withdrew from the city, taking an image of Minerva, and 
placing it in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus as a deposit ; and 
this letter was written while he was in exile at Thessalonica. 

Marcus to his brother Quintets, greeting. 

I. 1. My brother, my brother, my brother, were you afraid 
that, under the influence of some angry feeling, I had sent to 
you slaves without any letters ; or that I was even unwilling 
to see you? I angry with you! How could I have been 
angry with you ? I dare say ; for you, I suppose, have crushed 
me ; your enemies, your unpopularity has ruined me ; and it 
is not I who have miserably undone you. That consulship 
of mine, so much extolled, has torn from me you, my 
children, my country, my fortunes; would that it may have 
taken nothing from you but me alone ! But certainly, on 
your part, everything honourable, agreeable, has befallen me; 
from me there arises to you only sorrow for my ill-fortune, 
fear for your own, regret, grief, and selitude. Could I be un- 
willing to see you? Nay, rather I was unwilling to be seen 
by you.^ For you would not have seen your brother; you 

^ Quintus was just quitting his government in Asia, and returning to 
Rome, where his enemies were preparing to impeach him. He pro- 
posed to come out of his way to Thessalonica, to see his brother; but 
Cicero urged him rather to hasten to Rome. He says to Atticus, (Ep. 
iii. 19,) that it was necessary for his brother "to hasten to Rome with 
all speed, lest any injury should be done to him in his absence." . . . 



TO HIS BKOTHER QUINTUS. 31 

would not have seen him ^hom you had left, him whom you 
had known, him to whom, weeping, you had bidden farewell, 
yourself w^eeping, of whom you, when departing, had taken 
leave, after he had attended you some way on your journey: 
you would have seen not even a trace or image of him, but 
a sort of effigy of a breathing corpse. And I wish that you 
had rather seen or heard that I was dead; I wish that I had 
left you surviving, not only my life, but my dignity. 

2. But I call all the gods to witness, that I have been re- 
called from death by this single expression alone, that all men 
declared that a part of your life also was laid up in my life. 
I have therefore erred and acted wrongly: for if I had died, 
my death of itself would have been an ample proof of my love 
and affection for you; but I have been the cause, that though 
I am alive, you are without me, and that while I am alive, 
you are in need of the assistance of others; and that my 
voice is silent above all in our domestic dangers, after having 
often been a protection against perils which did not at all 
affect ourselves. For as to the fact of slaves having come 
to you without any letters, since you see it did not happen 
through anger, the cause was assuredly indolence, and an 
infinite multitude of sorrows and miseries. 

3. With what sorrow do you think that these very words 
are written? with as much as I know that you read them. 
Can I ever cease to think of you, or ever think of you without 
tears'? For when I regret yom- absence, is it a brother alone 
that I am regretting? J^ay, I rather regret one who is 
almost a contemporary in affection;^ a son in reverential 

"TTierefore I prefen-ed that he should hasten to Rome, instead of 
coming to see me ; and at the same time, (for I will tell the plain truth, 
by which you will be able to see the greatness of my distress,) I could 
not bring my mind to see him who is so greatly attached to me in such 
trouble ; nor to exhibit to him my own misery and gi^ief, and the utter 
ruin of my fortune ; nor could I endure to be seen by him. And I 
feared, too, what no doubt would have been the case, that he would not 
be able to tear himself from me." This letter to Atticus bears the same 
date as the one in the text to Quintus. 

. ^ Suaiitate prope cequalem. Cicero's meaning (if the text be as 
Cicero wrote it) seems to be, that his brother is almost his equal, not 
merely in length of life, but in length of affection. Marcus has loved 
Quintus longer than Quintus has loved Marcus, because Marcus loved 
Quintus in his infancy before Quintus could return his love. In saying 
this, I have some doubt whether I am giving the right sense to either 



32 , Cicero's letters 

obedience ; a father in wisdom. What has ever been agreeable 
to me without you, or to you without me ? Why need I add 
that at the same time I regret the absence of my daughter** 
A maiden of w^hat affection, what modesty, what abihty 1 the 
image of my own countenance and conversation and disposi 
tion. Why need I add, that I regret also my son, that mosi 
graceful youth, and most dearly loved by me ! w^hom I, like 
a cruel and hard-hearted man, dismissed from my embrace^ 
a youth of greater wisdom than I could have wished ; for the 
unhappy boy had sense to feel what was going on. Why too 
should I speak of your son, your own image, whom my boy 
Cicero both loved as a brother and respected even as an elder 
brother? Why should I observe that I did not permit that 
most miserable woman, my most faithful wife, to attend me 
in my exile, in order that there might be some one to protect 
the relics left from our common calamity, our common 
children 1 

4. But still, I did write you a letter, in such a way as 
I could, and gave it to Philogonus your freedman, and I 
imagine that it was subsequently delivered to you ; in which 
I continued to exhort and entreat you, as your slaves told 
you in the verbal message which they gave you from me, to 
go straight to Rome, and to go with speed. For, in the first 
place, I wished you to be there to protect yourself, in case 
there were still any enemies of ours whose cruelty was not 
yet satisfied with the calamities which had befallen me ; and, 
in the second place, I dreaded the lamentations which must 
have broken out at our meeting, and I could not have en- 
dured your departure ; I feared too that very thing which 
you mention in your letter, that you would not have been 
able to tear yourself from me. For these reasons, this great 
misfortune of not seeing you at all, than which it does not 

suavitas or cequalis. But we can hardly take cequalis in the sense of 
" equal," for Cicero would have offered poor praise to his brother if he 
had said to him, *' You are almost my equal in suavitas.*' " Suavitas/' 
says Malespina, " est inter amicos." But the soundness of the text is 
extremely doubtful. The old editions have suavitate prope wqualem, 
pi'ope fratrem ; the modern editors omit prope fratrem. Lambinus 
would read suavitate fratrem, setate prope wqualem, which Gruter calls 
a frigid emendation, but which would materially improve the passage. 
JEtate, however, is by no means necessary; for, if it were omitted, 
cequalis would still be taken in the sense of •' equal in age." 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 33 

seem possible for any more painful and bitter grief to have 
befallen affectionate and devoted brothers, was less bitter and 
less distressing than our meeting and our separation would 
have been. 

" 5. Now, if you can, do what I, who have always appeared 
to you to be a man of fortitude, cannot; raise and strengthen 
yourself if there is any contest to be encountered. I hope, 
if my hope has any weight, that your own integrity, and the 
affection which the city bears you, and even pity for me, will 
bring you some protection. But if you find yourself free 
from that danger, you will do, I am sure, anything which 
you shall think possible to be done in my behalf. On this 
subject many of my friends write me many letters, and show 
that they still entertain hopes; but I myself do not see clearly 
what to hope, as my enemies have very great power ; and of 
my friends, some have deserted me, and some have even 
betrayed me, as they fear perhaps in my return a reproof to 
their own wickedness. But what is the real position of affairs 
in that respect, I should wish you to examine thoroughly, 
and to let me know. For myself, as long as it shall be of 
any use to you, if you shall see that there is danger to be 
met, I will continue to live ; longer than that I cannot exist : 
for no prudence and no learning has power enough to endure 
such a weight of sorrow. 

6. I know that there has been a more honourable and 
a more useful opportunity of dying, but I not only let that 
slip, but many other things too; but, if I chose to waste 
time in lamenting what is past, I should be doing nothing 
but increasing your sorrow, and exhibiting my own folly. 
What, however, neither ought to be done nor can be done, 
is for me to remain in so miserable and dishonourable an ex- 
istence as this any longer than the chance of an opportunity 
of serving you or any well-grounded hope shall require ; so 
that I, who was formerly most happy in my brother, in my 
children, my wife, my resources, and even in respect of riches,^ 
and in dignity, authority, repute, and favour, not inferior 
to the greatest men who have ever existed, now, in these 
crushed and ruined circumstances, am no longer able even to 
lament myself and my friends. 

^ Genere ipso pecunice, Paiil Manutius would read, genere ipso, 
pecunid. 

D 



34 Cicero's letters 

7. Why, therefore, have you written to me about any bills 
of exchange? As if your resources did not now support me, 
in which very matter, miserable that I am, I both see and 
feel how great an error I have committed : while you have 
to satisfy those in whose debt you are, out of your own 
means and those of your son, I have rsquandered to no pur- 
pose money drawn out of the treasury in your name. But 
still, the sum which you mentioned in your letters has been 
paid to Mark Antony, and the same amount to Csepio. And 
what I have with me is quite sufficient for the objects which 
I have in view ; for whether I am restored, or whether I am 
forced to abandon all hope, I want nothing more here ; and 
as for you, if perchance any annoyance should arise, I advise 
you to apply to Crassus and to Calidius. 

8. How much trust may be placed in Hortensius I do not 
know. He treated me with the greatest possible dishonesty 
and treachery, though with the greatest pretences of affection, 
and with unremitting attention day after day, Arrius being 
also in league with him ; and it was from being deceived by 
their advice, and promises, and recommendations, that I fell 
into this misfortune. But you will take no notice of this, 
that they may not injure you ; only be on your guard on 
this point, (and with this view I would have you cultivate 
the friendship of Hortensius himself through the instru- 
mentality of Pomponius,)^ that that verse ^ which was quoted 
against you with reference to the Aurelian law, when you 
were a candidate for the sedileship, may not be confirmed 
by false witness. For there is nothing that I am so much 
afraid of as that, when men find out how much pity for me, 
your prayers, and a regard for your safety, is likely to excite, 
they will oppose you with greater violence. 

9. I believe that Messala is well afiected towards you ; and 
I think that even Pompey pretends to be so ; but I wish that 
you may have no occasion to experience this. And I would 
pray to the gods that you might not, if they had not given 

^ Titus Pomponius Atticus. 

2 Cicero was afraid, I imagine, that his brother Quintus might be 
accused of bribery, because, when he was a candidate for the sedileship, 
he had given away money contrary to the laws ; on which occasion some 
verse had been quoted about him, in reference to the Aurelian law, 
touching upon bribery. We may suppose that by the Aurelian law 
some provisions were made regarding bribery. — Paul Manutius. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 35 

up attending to my prayers. But still, I do pray that they 
may be content with the infinite misfortunes which have fallen 
upon me ; in which, however, there is not only no dishonour 
from wickedness, but my whole sorrow is that most severe 
punishments are inflicted upon the most virtuous actions. 

10. Why, my brother, need I recommend to you my daughter 
and yours, and my little Cicero? One of my sorrows is that 
their orphaned state will cause you no less grief than it 
causes me. But, as long as you are safe, they will not be 
orphans. As to the rest, so may some safety be granted me, 
and an opportunity of dying in my native land, as tears 
suffer me to write no more. I would have you also take 
care of Terentia, and write me an answer with a full account 
of everything. Keep up your courage as far as the nature 
of circumstances will allow. 

Dated on the 13th of June at Thessalonica. 



LETTER IV. 
Marciis to his brother Quintus, greeting. 

1. I ENTREAT you, my brother, if you and all my friends are 
involved in my individual ruin, do not attribute it to any 
dishonesty or evil-doing of mine, but rather to my impru- 
dence and ill-fortune. There is no error on my part, except 
that I have believed those men, by whom I thought it would 
be impious for me to be deceived, or even for whose very 
interests I did not think it would be advantageous. But 
every one of my most intimate friends — every one most 
nearly connected with me, and most dear to me, either 
feared for himself or envied me; and so, wretched that I 
was, I had nothing but the good faith of my friends. * * * 
My own prudence was at fault. 

2. But if your own innocence, and the pity which men feel, 
sufficiently protect you at this moment from annoyance, you 
no doubt see clearly whether there is any hope of safety left 
for me. For Pomponius and Sestius, and my friend Piso, 
have hitherto detained me at Thessalonica, as they prevented 
me from departing to a greater distance from the city, on 

d2 



36 CICERO'S LETTERS 

account of I know not what changes ; but I looked for some 
result, more because of their letters, than from any well- 
founded hope of my own. For what could I hope, with my 
enemy in full power, under the rule of mj detractors, with 
my friends faithless, and numbers envious of me ? 

3. Of the new tribunes of the people,^ Sestius indeed is full 
of wishes to serve me, and so, as I hope, are Curius, Milo, 
Fadius, and Fabricins ; though Clodius is most bitter against 
a man who, even when oat of office, will be able to exert the 
same power to stir up the assembly: and then, some one 
will also be prepared to interpose his veto. 

4. These things were not set before me when I was leaving 
the city, but I was constantly told that I should be brought 
back in three days with the greatest honour. How did you 
act then? you will ask me, — How? Many things came 
together to disturb my mind; the sudden defection of 
Pompey, the alienation of the consuls, also that of the 
praetors, the fears of the farmers of the public revenues, the 
dread of civil war. The tears of my friends prevented me 
from going forth to encounter death; a course which cer- 
tainly would have been best suited to my honour, and the 
best calculated to afford me a refuge from my intolerable 
miseries. But on this subject I wrote to you in that letter 
which I gave to Phaethon. Now, since you too are sunk 
down into such grief and perplexity as no one else ever 
suffered, if the pity of men can afford any relief in our 
common calamity, you will certainly gain an incredible 
advantage ; but if we are utterly ruined (alas, me !) then 
I shall have been the destruction of all my friends, to whom 
I was previously no disgrace. 

5. But do you, as I wrote to you before, examine the 
matter in all its bearings, and acquaint yourself with it 
thoroughly, and write me the exact truth, as the state of the 
time with reference to me, and not as your affection for me, 
dictates. I will cling to life as long as I shall think that it 
is for your advantage, or that it is possible to retain any 
hope ; you will know Sestius, who is most friendly to me ; 
and I imagine you will wish, for your own sake, to know 

^ The election of tribunes took place in the middle of July, and this 
letter was apparently written soon afterwards, in the same year as the 
preceding one. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 37 

Lentulus, who is going to be consul ; although facts are more 
stubborn things than words. You will see fully what is 
required, and what is the state of affairs ; if no one shall despise 
your solitary condition and our common distress, something 
will be able to be eflFected by you, or else not by any means. 
But if your enemies begin to attack you, do not be idle; 
for against me they will not proceed with swords, but with 
law-suits. However, I trust that there may be nothing of 
this. I entreat you to write me full information of every- 
thing; and to think, if you please, that there is in me less 
courage or wisdom than before, but not less love and affectior 
for you. 



38 CICEEO'S LETTERa 



BOOK 11. 



LETTER I. 

This letter was written at the end of the year 697 a.u.c, in the consul- 
ship of Lentulus Spinther and Metellus Nepos. Cicero had never 
been formally banished ; for though Clodius had prevailed to inter- 
dict him from fire and water, he yet did not propose any vote that 
he should be banished, nor did he attempt to have his name removed 
from the roll of the senate. He did indeed destroy his house, and 
dedicate the site to the goddess Liberty ; and the consuls seized 
his Tusculan villa ; but still no legal sentence had ever been pro- 
nounced against him. At the end of the year 696, when his enemy 
Piso, the late consul, was coming to Macedonia, which had been 
allotted to him as his province, Cicero moved to Dyrrhachium, in 
order to be nearer Italy, where his brother, and Pomponius Atticus 
(mentioned in the last letter), were making great exertions to render 
the people favourable to his return. Pompey had become alienated 
from Clodius by his violence and insolence ; and Lentulus, one of 
the consuls, was wholly devoted to Cicero. The consuls formally 
proposed that Cicero should be invited to return. One of the tri- 
bunes, Serranus, prevented the formal adoption of any such measure 
for a time ; but in August it was carried, and in September Cicero 
returned to Eome, where he was received with acclamations. He 
immediately began to cultivate the good-will of Pompey, by pro- 
posing his appointment to an extraordinary commission for supplying 
the city, which was in great distress from scarcity; and^he himself 
accepted a subordinate commissionership. The site of his house on 
the Palatine hill was restored to him, it being declared to have been 
illegally and informally consecrated ; and a sum of money was voted 
to him to recompense him for his other losses, though Cicero was 
not at all satisfied with the amount of compensation. The consuls- 
elect for the ensuing year were Lentulus Marcellinus, and Marcius 
Philippus. 

Marcus to his brother Quintus, greeting. 

1. The letter which you read I had written in the morning, 
but Licinius acted with kind consideration in coming to me 
in the evening as soon as the senate was adjourned, in order 
that, if I chose, I might write you an account of all that 
had taken place. The senate was more numerous than we 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 39 

had thought it could possibly have been in the month of 
December, close upon the festival days.^ Of the men of 
consular dignity, we were there ourselves, and the two con- 
suls-elect; and Publius Servilius, and Marcus LucuUus, and 
Lepidus, and Yolcatius, and Glabrio, praetors. We certainly 
•were a very numerous assembly, in all about two hundred. 
Lupus had excited our expectations; he discussed the ques- 
tion of the Campanian land with sufficient accuracy. He 
was listened to with profound silence. You are not ignorant 
of the subject. He did not pass over a single one of our 
actions. Some sharp things were said against Caius Csesar; 
some insulting observations were made on GeUius ; and some 
expostulations addressed to Pompey in his absence. When 
he had summed up the whole matter at a late hour, he said 
he would not ask us for our votes, lest he should lay on us 
the burden of incurring any one's enmity; from the reproaches 
which had been uttered on previous occasions, and from the 
present silence, he was well aware what the feelings of the 
senate were. Immediately he began to adjourn the senate. 
Then Marcellinus said, "Do not. Lupus, from our silence 
attempt to judge what on this occasion we either approve 
or disapprove; I, as far as I myself am concerned, and I 
believe that the same feelings influence the rest, am silent, 
because I do not think that, as Pompey is absent, it is 
proper for the question of the Campanian land to be dis- 
cussed." Then he said that he had no wish to detain the 
senate any longer. 

2. Ilacilius rose, and began to make a motion with respect 
to the threatened impeachments. And, first of all, he asked 
Marcellinus's opinion. He, after having complained with 
great bitterness of the conflagrations, and murders, and 
stonings perpetrated by Clodius, gave his opinion that he 
himself should assign the judges by lot with the assistance 
of the city praetor; that when the business of assigning of 
the judges was finished, the comitia should be held; and that 
whoever offered any obstacle to the tribunals would act con- 
trary to the interests of the republic. After his opinion had 
been received with great approbation, Caius Cato spoke against 

^ From the middle of December to the end of the year, the whole 
time was taken up with the different festivals, — Saturnalia, Opalia, 
Angeronalia, Larentinalia, and Juvenalia, 



40 CICERO S LETTERS 

it, and so did Cassius, calling forth great acclamations from 
the senate, as he expressed his opinion that the comitia 
ought to take precedence of the impeachments. Philippus 
agreed with Lentulus. 

3. Afterwards Eacilius asked me my opinion, first of all the 
senators out of office. I made a long speech about the whole 
frenzy and piratical wickedness of Publius Clodius ; I accused 
him as if he had been on his trial, with incessant and favour- 
able murmurs of assent from the whole senate. Severus 
Antistius praised my speech at tolerable length, and in lan- 
guage far from ineloquent; and he supported the cause of 
the courts of justice, and said that he should always consider 
it of the greatest importance. That opinion was adopted. 
Then Clodius, when he was asked his opinion, began to take 
up all the rest of the day with his speech ; he declared in 
furious language, that he had been attacked by E-acilius in 
a most insulting and discourteous manner. And then his 
factious mob on a sudden, in the space in front of the senate- 
house, and on the steps, raised a very great disturbance, being 
excited, I imagine, against Quintus Sextilius, and the friends 
of Milo. The fear of this uproar spreading abroad, we im- 
mediately broke up, with great complaints from all parties. 

You have an account of the transactions of one day. The 
rest of the business, I imagine, will be postponed till the 
month of January. Of the tribunes of the people, we find 
Eacilius by far the best. Antistius, too, seems likely to be 
friendly to us. As for Plancius, he is wholly devoted to us. 
If you love me, be very considerate and careful how you put 
to sea in the month of December. 



LETTER II. 



Marcus to his hrother Quintus^ greeting. 

1. It is not from pressure of business, with which, how- 
ever, I am pretty much hindered, but from a slight attack 
of weak eyes, that I am led to dictate this letter, instead of 
writing with my own hand, as I usually do to you. And 
in the first place I excuse myself to you in the very par- 
ticular in which I accuse you ; for no one has ever yet asked 
me, "Whether I wished to send anything to Sardinia?" but 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 41 

I suppose you often find people ask you, "Whether you 
wish to send anything to Rome 1 " As to what you wrote to 
me in the name of Lentulus and Sestius, I spoke on that 
matter with Cincius. However the business stands, it is 
not a veiy easy one ; but in truth Sardinia has something 
very well suited to recal to people's mind a circumstance 
which had escaped their recollection. For as the great Grac- 
chus, when he was augur, after he arrived in that province, 
recollected what had happened to him contrary to the auspices, 
when holding the comitia in the Campus Martins for the 
election of consuls, so you, too, seem to me, now that you are 
in Sardinia,^ to have reflected again at your leisure on the 
shape of the house of Minucius, and on the debt which you 
owe to Pomponius. But as yet I have bought nothing. The 
auction of CuUeo's property has taken place. There was no 
one to purchase the property; if the terms should be very 
favourable, perhaps I may not let it slip myself. 

2. About your building, I do not cease to press Cyrus, and 
I hope that he will attend to his duty; but everything is a 
little slow, because of the expectation which is entertained of 
a frantic sedileship.^ For the comitia seem likely to take 
place without delay; they have been given out for the 22d 
of January. However, I would not wish you to be uneasy 
about them ; every kind of caution shall be practised by us. 

3. A vote of the senate has been passed about the king of 
Alexandria,^ that it appears dangerous to the republic for 
him to be restored with a multitude; and when there fol- 
lowed a contest in the senate, whether Lentulus or Pompey 
should be appointed to restore him, Lentulus appeared to 
have the majority. In this transaction I satisfied my sense 
of obligation to Lentulus to admiration^ and that of good- 

^ Quintus was in Sardinia, as one of Pompey's commissioners to 
procure com for the city. 

2 Clodius was standing for the sedHeship. 

^ This was Ptolemy Auletes, who was now at Rome, and who had 
procured a vote to be passed that he should be restored to his king- 
dom. The vote that he should not be restored with a multitude, was 
caused by a verse which Caius Cato, a tribune, professed to have 
found in the Sibyhine verses, and which he interpreted to mean that 
an army ought not to be employed in the matter ; while one of the 
reasons which made so many desirous of the appointment to rest on 
him, was, that it would furnish a pretext for levying an army. 



42 Cicero's letters 

will to Pompey with honour. But, by those who wished to 
disparage Lentulus, the matter was protracted by means of 
false accusations. The days of the comitia followed, during 
which a senate could not be held. What will be the result of 
the bandit-like conduct of the tribunes, I cannot conceive; 
but still I suspect that Caninius will carry his motion by 
force. What Pompey's wishes in that matter are, I do not 
clearly see ; but every one discerns what his friends want : 
and the creditors of the king, without any disguise, furnish 
money to be used against Lentulus. Beyond all doubt, the 
matter now appears to be out of the reach of Lentulus, to 
my great sorrow, although he has done many things for 
which, if it were proper, we might fairly feel angry with him. 

4. I should wish you, if it is convenient, as soon as the 
weather is fine and settled, to embark on board ship, and 
come to me; for there are great numbers of things in which 
I want you daily in every way. Your family and mine are 
well. " 19 th January. 



LETTER III. 

Marcus to his brother Quintus, greeting, 

1. I WROTE to you already what happened before; learn 
now what took place afterwards. The business of embassies 
was postponed from the 1st of February to the 13th. On 
that day the matter was not settled. On the 2d of February, 
Milo was present ; and Pompey came to give him his counte- 
nance. Marcellus spoke, being asked by me. We came off 
very respectably. The day of trial was put off to the 6th of 
February. In the meantime, as the business of the embas- 
sies was postponed till the 13th, a motion was made about 
the provinces of the quaestors, and about some compliments 
to be paid to the praetors ; but, from the introduction of 
frequent complaints about the general state of affairs,^, no 
business was transacted. Caius Cato proposed a law to take 
away his command from Lentulus. His son changed his dress. 

2. On the 6th of February Milo appeared; Pompey spoke, 
or rather, intended to speak ; for as soon as he was on his 
legs, the mob in Clodius's pay raised a disturbance, which 
lasted throughout his whole speech; and in such a manner 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 43 

that he was hindered from being heard, not merely by the 
noise, but by reproaches and abuse. When he had summed 
up what he had been saying, (for in that matter he behaved 
with courage enough; he was not deterred from proceeding; 
he said all that he meant to say; and, indeed, there were 
moments when he was heard in silence ; and he continued 
to the end with great authority; but when he had summed 
up,) up rose Clodius, when such a shout was raised against 
him by our party, for we determined to pay him off, that 
he was master neither of his senses, nor of his expressions, 
nor of his countenance. This scene was continued till two 
o'clock, Pompey having scarcely finished his peroration at 
twelve, while every sort of abuse, and even the most obscene 
verses, were uttered in the way of attack upon Clodius and 
Clodia. He, furious with passion, and pale with terror, amid 
the uproar, addressed questions to his mob : '^ Who was 
it that was killing the people with famine ? " The mob 
replied, " Pompey." " Who was it that wanted to go to 
Alexandria?" They replied again, " Pompey." "Whom did 
they wish to go V They answered, " Crassus." And he, on 
this occasion, was present with Milo; but with a disposition 
far from friendly. At about three o'clock, as if a signal had 
been given, Clodius's mob began to spit upon our party. 
Indignation rose to a great height ; they began to press on in 
order to drive us from our seats. A rush was made upon 
them by our party; and a flight of the mob took place. 
Clodius was driven from the rostrum, and we too then fled, 
lest we should meet with any accident in the confusion. The 
senate was summoned to the senate-house; Pompey went 
home. Nor did I indeed attend the senate, that I might neither 
be silent on matters of such importance, nor offend the feelings 
of the well-afFected citizens, by defending Pompey; for he 
was attacked by Bibulus, and Curio, and Favonius, and the 
younger Servilius. The matter was put ofi" till the next day. 
Clodius deferrred the day of impeachment to the Quirinalia. 
3. On the 9th of February, the senate met in the temple 
of Apollo, in order that Pompey might be present. The 
matter was handled by him with great gravity. On that day 
nothing was done. On the 10th of February, a decree of 
senate was made in the temple of Apollo, " That what had 
been done on the 6th of February had been contrary to the 
interests of the republic." On that day Cato inveighed 



44 Cicero's letters 

against Pompey with great vehemence ; and throughout his 
whole speech accused him as if he had been upon his trial. 
Of' me, much against my will, he said a great deal ; extolling 
me very highly; and when he exposed Pompey's treachery 
towards me, he was listened to with profound silence by the 
disaffected. Pompey replied to him with great energy, and 
gave a character of Crassus, and said in plain words, that he 
would be better prepared to defend his life than Africanus 
had been, whom Caius Carbo had killed. 

4. Thus great matters appeared to me to be in agitation; for 
Pompey understands these things, and communicates them 
to me, being well aware that plots are formed against his life ; 
that Caius Cato is supported by Crassus, that money is fur- 
nished to Clodius, and that both of them are encouraged by 
him, by Curio, and Bibulus, and the rest of those who are 
always disparaging him; and that he has to take the most 
diligent care not to be overwhelmed, while the populace which 
attends all the assembHes is almost entirely alienated from 
him; while the nobility is hostile to him, the senate un- 
favourable, and the youth of the city corrupted. He is, 
therefore, preparing himself, and sending for people from the 
country. And Clodius is strengthening his mob of artisans. 
A strong force is being prepared for the Quirinalia, and in 
that respect we are much superior to the number of Pompey's 
adherents. But a great body of men is also expected from 
Picenum and Gaul, that we may also resist Cato's motions 
about Milo and Lentulus. 

5. On the 10th of February, Sestius was impeached under 
the Pupinian law by Cnseus Nerius the informer, on a charge 
of corruption, and on the same day by a certain Marcus 
Tullius for violence. He was sick. Immediately, as it was 
our duty to do, we went to see him at his house, and pro- 
mised our entire energies to his service ; and we did this con- 
trary to the general expectation, (as men thought that we 
were with reason offended with him,) in order to appear both 
to him and to all men to be of a most humane and grateful 
disposition. And so we shall continue to do. 

But this same informer, Nerius, added to the number 
of those whom he affirmed to be his accomplices, Cnseus 
Lentulus Yaccias, and Caius Cornelius. On the same day, a 
vote of the senate was passed, that all the different com- 
panies, and those who belonged to the different decurise, 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 45 

should depart ; and that a law should be enacted respecting 
them, to the effect, that those who should not depart, should 
be liable to the punishment which is inflicted for violence. 

6. On the 11th of February I made a speech in defence of 
Bestia, who was accused of corruption before Cn^eus Domitiua 
the praetor, in the middle of the forum, in the presence of 
a vast crowd of people, and while speaking, I happened to 
touch upon that occasion when Sestius, after receiving many- 
wounds in the temple of Castor, was saved by the assistance 
of Bestia. Here I very seasonably made the best of those 
things which were imputed to Sestius as crimes, and I extolled 
him T\ith well-deserved praises, with the great approbation of 
all men. The affair was exceedingly grateful to the man. 
And I mention this to you now, because in your letters you 
have often given me a hint on keeping well with Sestius. 

7. On the 12th of February I wrote this letter before 
daybreak; on that day I was going to sup with Pomponius 
on the occasion of his marriage. Everything else in our 
affairs of this nature is, as you described to me, though I 
could hardly believe you, full of dignity and influence, which 
have been restored both to you and to me, ray brother, in 
consequence of your prudence, patience, integrity, piety, and 
courteousness. The house of Licinius at the grove of Pise 
is hired for you ; but I hope that within a few months after 
the 1st of July, you will move into your own. Those elegant 
tenants, the Lamiae, have hired your house in the Carinse. I 
have never received any letter from you since that which was 
dated at Olbia. I want to know what you are doing, and 
how you are amusing youi'self ; and above all things, I want 
to see you as soon as possible. Take care to preserve your 
health, my brother, and though it is winter, recollect that it 
is a Sardinian^ winter. 

15th Februarv. 



LETTER lY. 

Marcus to his hrotlier Quintus, greeting. 

1. Our friend Sestius was acquitted on the 14th of March, 
and ho was acquitted unanimously; a point which was oi 

^ Sardinia had a bad character as an unhealthy island. 



46 CICERO's LETTERS 

very great importance to the republic, that there should 
appear to be no difference of opinion in a cause of that kind. 
As to that other object too, which I knew was often a cause 
of anxiety to you, namely, that we should give no oppor- 
tunity to any ill-disposed person to censure us, (who might 
say that we were ungrateful if we did not bear with that 
man's perverseness in some particulars as patiently as pos- 
sible,) you may be assured that we completely attained it in 
that trial, so that I was 'considered to have displayed the 
greatest possible sense of gratitude; for in defending the 
ill-tempered man I abundantly satisfied him; and, for my 
own gratification, I, as he was above all things desirous 
should be done, cut up Yatinius, by whom he was openly 
attacked, amid the applause of gods and men. Moreover, 
when our friend Paullus was produced as an evidence against 
Sestius, he confirmed the statement that he was going 
to lay an information against Vatinius, if Macer Licinius 
delayed to do so ; when Macer rose from the seats occupied 
by the friends of Sestius, and declared that he would not fail 
to stand by him. Would you know the result? Yatinius, 
petulant and audacious as he is, went away in great agitation, 
and greatly weakened in his influence. 

2. Your son Quintus, a most excellent boy, is going on 
with his education remarkably well ; and I have now the more 
opportunity of noticing this, as Tyrannio gives him lessons 
at my house. The building of both our houses is going on 
vigorously. I have provided for the payment of half his 
money to your contractor ; and I hope that before the winter 
we shall be both living together under one roof Respecting 
my daughter Tullia, a girl who is really very much attached 
to you, I hope that I have concluded matters with Crassipes.^ 
There were two days after the Latin holidays which are 
accounted sacred, or else it would have been settled. Latiar^ 
was going * * * * * * 

^ Tullia was a widow now. Her first husband had been Lucius 
Calpumius Piso Frugi. She now married Junius Crassipes. After his 
death, she married Dolabella. 

2 There is some error in the MS. here. This name is most likely- 
wrong; and the end of the letter seems to be lost. There is some 
difference of opinion between the various editors, as to the division of 
this, and one or two of the subsequent letters. I have followed the 
old arrangement, which is also adopted by Nobbe. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 47 

LETTER V. 

Marcus to his brother Quintus, greeting. 

1. I HAD written you a letter before, in which it was men- 
tioned that my daughter Tulha was betrothed to Crassipes 
on the 4th of April ; and I gave you also other details of 
the affairs of the republic, and of my own private matters. 
The following particulars have taken place since: — On the 
5th of April, a sum of money, to the amount of more than 
three hundred and twenty thousand pounds,^ was voted to 
Pompey, by a decree of the senate, to purchase corn for the 
city. But on the same day there was a violent discussion 
about the lands in Campania, with an uproar in the senate 
almost equal to that of an assembly of the people. The 
want of money, and the high price of corn, made the dispute 
sharper. 

2. I must not omit to mention this either. The Capitoline " 
college, and the priests of Mercury, have expelled Marcus 
Furius Flaccus, a Roman knight, and a most w^orthless 
fellow, from the college, though he was present when they 
came to the decision, and threw himself at the feet of every 
one of them. 



LETTER YI. 

Marcus Cicero to his brother Quintus, greeting. 

1. On the 6t?i of April I gave the wedding-feast to Cras- 
sipes. But at this banquet that excellent boy, your and 

^ HSCCCC. Paul Manutius considers that quadringenties centena 
millia nummiXm is meant, i.e. 40,000 sestertia, or something more than 
£320,000. Let it be observed, however, that with regard to most, or 
all, of the sums of money mentioned in these letters, there is very 
great uncertainty. 

2 The Capitoline college consisted of men dwelling In the Capitol 
and in the citadel, of whom Camillus made a college, for the purpose of 
superintending the games in honour of Jupiter Capitolinus, which were 
instituted for the preservation of the Capitol. See Livy, v. 50. 



iS CICERO'S LETTERS 

my Quintns, was not present, because he had taken some 
slight offence ; and therefore, two days afterwards, I went to 
Quintus, and found him quite candid; and he held a long 
conversation with me, full of good feeling, about the quarrels 
of our wives. What would you have more"? Nothing could 
be in better taste than his language. Pomponia, however, 
made some complaints of you: but these matters we will 
discuss when we meet. 

2. When I left the boy I went into your grounds ; the 
business was going on with plenty of builders. I urged 
Longilius, the contractor, to make haste. He assured me 
positively that he was anxious to give us satisfaction. It w411 
be a very fine house, for a better notion could now be formed 
of it than we had conceived from the plan. At the same time, 
my house, too, was going on with great speed. That day I 
supped with Crassipes ; and after supper I went in a litter to 
see Pompey at his villa. I had not been able to meet Lucceius, 
because he w^as away, and I. was very anxious to see him, 
because I was going to leave Rome the next day, and because 
he was going to Sardinia. At last I found the man, and begged 
him to send you back to us as soon as possible. He said he 
would do so immediately. And he was going to set out as 
he said on the 11th of April, with the intention of embarking 
either at Leghorn or at Pisa. 

3. As soon as he shall have arrived, my brother, do not 
let slip the first opportunity for sailing, provided the weather 
be favourable. That abundance (a/x(^tXa(^ta) which you are 
in the habit of talking of, I desire sufficiently ; that is to say, 
so as to receive it willingly if it comes, but not so as now to 
hunt for it if it keeps out of my way. I am building in 
three places; restoring and embellishing in others; I live 
a little more liberally than I used to do. If I had you 
with me, I should be forced to give a little play to the 
masons ; but, as I hope, we shall soon talk these things over 
together. 

4. Affairs at Eome, however, are in the following con- 
dition: — Lentulus makes a very good consul, his colleague 
offering no hindrance; indeed he is, I repeat, so good, that 
I never saw a better. He prevented anything whatever being 
done in the days of the comitia; for even the Latin holidays 
are renewed; and yet supplications were not wanting. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 49 

5, In this manner some most pernicious laws are snccess- 
fully resisted, especially those proposed by Cato, whom our 
friend Milo has admirably baffled. For that avenger of 
gladiators and matadors had bought some matadors from 
Cosconius and Pomponius, and never appeared in public 
without a troop of them armed. He could not maintain 
them, so that he could scarcely keep them about him. Milo 
became aware of this; and gave a commission to a man who 
was no particular friend of his, to buy the whole establish- 
ment from Cato without any suspicion; and as soon as it 
was removed from Cato's house, Eacilius, who at this moment 
is the only real tribune of the people, divulged the whole 
matter, and said that those men had been bought for him, 
(for so it had been agreed upon.) and stuck up a notice, 
that he was going to sell the establishment of gladiators and 
matadors belonging to Cato. Much laughter followed this 
announcement. So now Lentulus has tired Cato of proposing 
new laws, as well as those persons who proposed those mon- 
strous enactments with reference to Csesar, which no one 
chose to impede by his veto. For as to what Caninius 
intended about Pompey, that has doubtless cooled consider- 
ably; since the thing itself is disapproved; and our friend 
Pompey is much bkmed for his conduct with respect to 
Lentulus,^ who had behaved to him in a friendly manner. 
And indeed he is not the same person that he used to be ; 

, for he has given no shght offence by his exertions on behalf of 
! Milo to those most infamous and despicable dregs of the 
j people that adhere to Clodius ; and the well-disposed citizens, 

too, want a good deal which they do not find in him, and 

blame a good deal which they do. 

In one respect Marcellinus indeed does not satisfy me; 
I which is this, that he treats him with too much asperity; 

although he does this not at all against the will of the senate. 

On this account I withdraw with the less reluctance from the 

senate-house and from all connexion with public affairs. 

6. With respect to law proceedings, we are much in the 
same state that we were ; my house is thronged by the 

^ Lentulus had been the principal means of the commission to 
supply Rome with food being entrusted to Pompey; who, however, 
endeavoured to deprive him of the honour of being appointed to 
[restore Ptolemy to his kingdom. 

E 



50 CICERO 5 LETTERS 

greatest crowds of people imaginable. One thing has hap- 
pened unpleasantly, through the imprudence of Milo, with 
respect to Sextus Coelius, whom I did not wish to be prose- 
cuted at this time, or by accusers who wanted influence. He 
just wanted three votes of the most worthless men on the 
bench ; and so the people insist upon it that the man shall 
be tried again ; and tried again he must be, for men will not 
bear it. And because he was almost convicted while pleading 
his cause before his own friends, they look upon him as vir- 
tually convicted. In that matter also the unpopularity of 
Pompey was a hindrance to us : for the votes of the senators 
acquitted him by a majority; those of the knights were 
equally balanced ; those of the tribunes of the treasury con- 
demned him. But the daily convictions of some or other 
of my enemies console me for this disappointment, among 
whom Servius had a very narrow escape, to my great joy^ 
the rest are entirely crushed. Caius Cato made a speech, to 
the effect that he would not permit the comitia to be held 
if the days for doing business were taken away from the 
people. Appius had not yet returned from Caesar. 

7. I am amazingly anxious for a letter from you. And I 
am aware that till this time the sea has been impassable; 
but still people said that some persons had come from Ostia, 
who extolled you in an extraordinary degree ; and said that 
you were very highly esteemed in the province. They added, 
that the same persons brought word, that you intended to 
cross at the first opportunity for sailing. I hope you will : 
but although I am most desirous of all to see yourself, still 
I hope* for a letter from you first. My brother, farewell. 



LETTER yil. 

Marcus to his brother Qidntus, greeting. 

On the 11th of April I dictated this letter to you before 
daybreak, and wrote on the road, with the purpose of staying 
that day with Titus Titius in the neighbourhood of Anagnia. 
But I thought of staying the next day at Laterium,^ and 
from thence, after remaining four or five days in the neigh- 

' Ijaterium was a couutry-house of Quintus Cicero, in the paighbour- 
hood of Arpinum. 



TO HIS BKOTHER QUINTUS. 51 

bourhood of Arpinum, to go to the neighbourhood of Pompeii, 
and on my return to view the country about Cumse, in order 
that, as Milo's trial is fixed for the 7th of May, I might arrive 
at Rome the day before, and on that day, as I hoped, might 
see you, my dearest and most beloved brother. It has seemed 
well to me that the beginning of the building at Arcanum^ 
should be stopped till you arrive. Take care of your health, 
my brother, and come as soon as possible. 



LETTER YIII. 

'Marcus Cicero to his brother Quintus, greeting. 

1. LETTER of yours, most acceptable to me, long ex- 
pected, at first indeed with eager desire, but now even with 
some apprehension. Know, too, that this is the only letter 
which I have received since that which your sailor brought 
me, and dated from Olbia. But let everything else, as you 
say in your letter, be reserved till we can talk it over toge- 
ther. Yet this one thing I cannot forbear to mention. On 
the 15th of May the senate, being very crowded, was most 
admirably disposed, as it showed by refusing a supplication in 
honour of Gabinius.^ Racilius swears that such a thing never 
happened to any one before. It is very well received out- 
of-doors. To me it is agreeable on its own account, and more 
agreeable, because the decision was made in my absence, (for 
it expresses the real sentiments of the senate,) and without 
any opposition or influence of mine. I was at Antium at 
the time. 

2. As to what was said, namely, that there would be a dis- 
cussion, on the fifteenth and the day after, on the subject of 
the lands in Campania, there was no discussion. What I 
myself should say on the subject, I am in doubt; but I shall 
probably say more than I had intended, for he will be present. 
Farewell, my most excellent and most wished-for brother, and 
hasten to me. Our children make you the same request; 
begging you to be sure to mind this, that you will sup here 
when you come. 

^ Arcanum was another villa belonging to Quintus. 
- Gabinius, as proconsul of Syria, had gained some trifling advan- 
tiiges over the Arabs on the frontiers of the province. 

E 2 



52 CICEEO'S LETTERS 



LEl'TEE IX. 

Thiij letter was written the year after those preceding, in the consul- 
^ip of l^ompey and Crassus; both for the second time. Their 
election had been carried against the senate by the most open vio- 
lence. Cicero, who had offended the triumvirs by his opposition to 
Caesar's agrarian law, was anxious to reunite himself to them. 

Marcus Cicero to his brother Quintus, greeting. 

1. I HAD a suspicion that my book would please you; that 
it has pleased you so much as you write that it has, I am 
greatly delighted. As to what you remind me about our 
Urania, and advise me to remember the speech of Jupiter, 
which is at the end of that book, I remember it well enough, 
and have written all those things more to please myself than 
others. 

2. But still, the day after you went, I went, late at night, 
with Vibullius to call upon Pompey ; and when I had talked 
to him about these works and inscriptions, he answered me 
with exceeding kindness, and gave me great hopes. He said 
that he should like to talk with Crassus, and advised me to 
do the same. I attended Crassus as consul home from the 
senate ; he undertook the business, and said that there was 
a pomt which Clodius, at this moment, was very desirous to 
carry by means of his and Pompey's assistance; and that 
he thought, if I threw no obstacle in his way, that I might 
obtain what I wished without any struggle. I entrusted the 
whole affair to him, and said that I would leave myself 
entirely in his hands. Publius Crassus was present at this 
conversation; a young man, as you are aware, devotedly 
attached to me. JSTow, what Clodius wants is some embassy ; 
and if he cannot obtain it from the senate, he would have 
it by means of the people; a free embassy^ to Bvzantium, or 

^ The Latin is legatio libera. "During the latter period of the republic 
it had become customary for senators to obtain from the senate permis- 
sion to travel through or stay in any province, at the expense of the pro- 
vincials, merely for the purpose of managing and conducting their own 
personal affairs. There was no restraint as to the length of time the sena- 1 
tors were allowed to avail themselves of this privilege, which was a heavy I 
burden on the provincials. This mode of sojourning in a province was ! 
called legatio libera, because those who availed themselves of it enjoyed , 



TO HIS BEOTHER QUINTUS. 53 

to Brogitarus, or to both. It is a means for making a great 
deal of money. I shall not give myself much trouble on 
the subject, even though I do not obtain what I want myself. 
However, Pompey talked the matter over with Crassus; and 
they seem to have undertaken the business. If they do so, 
well j if not, then we will return to our Jupiter. ^ 

3. On the 13th of May, a decree of the senate was 
passed on the subject of corruption, in accordance with the 
opinion of Afranius, on which I spoke when you were pre- 
sent; but with great indignation on the part of the senate. 
The consuls did not follow up their opinions; and when 
they had expressed their assent to Afranius's proposal, they 
added a wish that the praetors should be created in such a 
manner as to leave them private individuals for sixty days. 
On that day they plainly repudiated Cato. In short, they are 
absolute masters of everything, and they wish every one to be 
aware that that is the case. 



LETTER X. 

Marcus to his brother Quintus, greeting. 

1. You are afraid of interrupting me. In the first place, 
if I were as much occupied as you fancy, you know what 
alone can be properly called interruption. Does Ateius ever 
interrupt you? In truth, you seemed to me to teach me a 
degree of politeness on that head wKich I certainly never 
practise towards you. I would wish you to summon me, and 
interrupt me, and put in your word, and converse with me; 
for what can be more agTeeable to me ? Upon my word, no 
Muse-stricken poetaster more gladly reads his last poem than 
I listen to you on every subject, public or private, rural or 
civil. But it happened through my own stupid shamefaced- 
ness, that when I was going away, I did not take you with 

all the privileges of a public ambassador, without having any of his 
duties to perform. In Cicero's time this practice was greatly abused ; 
and in his consulship he endeavoured to put an end to it, but only 
succeeded in limiting its duration to one year. And Caesar afterwards 
extended the time again to five years, which enactment lasted down to 
A very late period." — Smith, Diet. Ant. 
^ It is not known what this book was. 



54 CICERO'S LETTERS 

.^e. On one occasion, you opposed to my wishes an excuse 
which there was no gainsaying — the dehcate health of our 
dear Cicero : I had nothing to say. A second time you 
urged the Ciceros : again I ceased to press you. 

2. But now this letter of yours, so full of agreeableness, 
has caused me this trifle of annoyance, that you seem to me 
to have feared, and still to fear, lest you should be trouble- 
some to me. I could quarrel with you, if it were allowable ; 
but in truth, if I ever suspect anything of the sort, I will 
say nothing further, but that I shall be afraid lest I should 
ever be troublesome to you, when I am with you. I see 
that you groan. This is the case — 

€t 5* iv aXa iQr](Tas : ^ 

for I will never say, 

ea irdaas. 

And I would, indeed, have forced my friend Marius into the 
litter with me ; not that Anician one of king Ptolemy. For 
I recollect when I was taking the man to Baia3 from Naples, 
in the litter given by the king to Anicius, which was borne 
by eight men, with a hundred guards following us, we were 
laughing exceedingly, when he, not aware of the escort which 
was accompanying him, suddenly opened the litter, and 
almost fell to the ground with fear, while I did the same with I 
laughing. On that occasion, I say, I should certainly have 
taken him with me, so as at last to enjoy some of the subtlety 
of his antique wit, and most agreeable conversation ; but I 
did not like to invite a man in a weak state of health, and 
who is not even now very strong, to a villa which was hardly 
covered in. 

3. But this indeed will be a peculiar pleasure to me, to 
enjoy his society here too : for you must know that the light 
of Marius^ is in the neighbourhood of those farms of mine; 
we shall see at Anicius's house in what state of forwardness 
his affairs are. For as for ourselves, we are so desirous to 
acquire information of any sort, that we can even endure 
living among masons. We have this philosophy, not from 
Hymettus, but from the Syrian school. Marius is weak 
both in health and by nature. 

^ It is not known whence these quotations come, or to what Cicero 
alludes in them. 

^ I.e. J says Manutius, Marius, who is as welcome as the light. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 55 

4. In regard of your interruptions, I will take as much 
time from your visit, for the purpose of writing, as you will 
give me. I wish you would give me none, so that I may 
be idle rather from your ill-treatment, than from my own 
indolence. I am sorry that you are so anxious about the 
commonwealth, and that you are a better citizen than Phi- 
loctetes, who, after he had received an injury, sought those 
sort of spectacles which I see are disagreeable to you. I 
entreat you hasten to me ; I will comfort you, and wipe 
away all your sorrow. And, if you love me, bring Marius 
with youj but come quickly. I have a garden at home. 



LETTER XI. 

This letter was written in the year 700 a.u.c, in the consulship of 
Domitius and Appius Pulcher. In the preceding year, Cicero had 
done his best to ingratiate himself with Pompey, who had paid him 
a visit : and after Crassus had departed for his province of Syria, he 
studied also to gain his good-will; but he applied himself at this 
time more to philosophy than to politics. Quintus went this year 
into Gaul as one of Caesar's lieutenants. 

Marcus Cicero to his brother Quintus, greeting, 

1. Your little notes have wrung this letter from me by 
their reproaches ; for the circumstance itself, and the day in 
which you set out, gave me no subject for writing; but as, 
when we are together, conversation is not wont to fail us, so 
too our letters ought at times to have something sparkling 
in them. 

2. The liberty of the Tenedians,^ therefore, has been cut 
down with a Tenedian axe, as no one, except Bibulus^ and 
Calidius, and Favonius, and me, was found to defend them. 

3. Mention has been made of you by the Magnesians of 
Sipylus, the more honourable as they said that you were 
the only person who resisted the demands of Lucius Sextius 
Pansa. 

^ The people of Tenedos had petitioned to be allowed to live under 
their ovni laws. The expression, " a Tenedian axe," is said to refer to 
a story of their ancient king Tennes, who gave his name to the island ; 
and one of whose laws was, that if any one detected an adulterer in 
the fact, he was to be slain with an axe. 



56 CICERO'S LETTERS 

4. For the rest of the time, if there should be anything 
which it is desirable for you to knoWj or even if there is 
nothing- of the sort, still I will write something every day. 
On the 12th of April I will not be wanting either to you o^ 
to Pompojiius. 

5. The poems of Lucretius are just what you describe them ; 
remarkable for no great brilliancy of genius, but for a great 
deal of art. But when you come, I shall think you a man 
indeed, if you can read the Empedoclea of Sallust; an 
ordinary man I shall not think you. Farewell. 



LETTER XIL 

Marcus to his brother Quintus, greeting, 

1. I AM glad that my letters are acceptable to you, and yet 
I should not even now have had any subject for writing 
upon, if 1 had not received yours; for, on the 14th, when 
Appius had assembled the senate, which met in very scanty 
numbers, it was so bitterly cold that he was compelled by.' 
the grumbling of the people to dismiss us. 

2. About the king of Commagene, Appius, both in his own 
letters to me, and by the mouth of Pomponius, caresses me 
wonderfully for having frustrated the whole affair ; for he sees 
that if I adhere to this kind of speaking on other matters, 
February will be quite barren; and I touched him off in 
a tolerably sportive humour, and wrung from him not only 
that little town which was situated on the Euphrates at 
Zeugma, but ridiculed his prsetexta gown which he had re- 
ceived in the consulship of Csesar, with much laughter from 
everybody, 

3. As to his not wishing, said I, to renew the same honours, 
so as not to have to furbish up his praetexta every year, I 
do not think we need come to any vote on that point : ^ but 
you, nobles, who could not bear a man from Bostra wearing 
the prsetexta, will you endure one from Commagene'? You 
see the kind, and the topics, of my jokes. I said a great 

^ Manutius confesses that he is not at all aware what is meant or 
referred to here. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 57 

deal against an ignoble king, and at the end he was com- 
pletely hissed out. With this sort of speech^ Appius, as I 
saidj being delighted, is entirely devoted to me ; for nothing 
can be more easy than to get rid of all the rest of the 
business. But I wiU do nothing to offend him/ lest he im- 
plore the protection of Jupiter Hospitalis ; and call together 
all the Greeks by whose intervention I have been reconciled 
to him. 

4. We will give satisfaction to Theopompus. About Csesar 
it had escaped me to write to you, for I see what a letter you 
expected j but he wrote to Balbus, that that bundle of letters, 
in which mine and Balbus's were, was brought to him soaked 
through and through with water, so that he did not even 
know that there had been any letter at all from me. But of 
the letter of Balbus, he had been able to make out a few 
words ; to which he replied in these terms : — I see that you 
have said something about Cicero which I have not been able 
to make out ; but as far as I could guess, it was something of 
this kind, that I should think him rather to be wished for 
than hoped for. 

5, I, therefore, subsequently, sent Csesar another copy of 
that letter; do not you overlook his jest about his dif&culties. 
And I wrote him word also in reply, that there was nothing 
that he would be able to throw into disorder from relying 
on my strong-box : and in this way I jested with him fami- 
liarly, and at the same time with a proper dignity. His 
exceeding good-will towards me is communicated by mes- 
sengers from all quarters. Letters, indeed, referring to what 
you expect, will very nearly coincide with your return. The 
other events of each day I will write to you, that is to say, 
if you will provide couriers. Although, such terrible cold has 
prevailed, that there was very great danger of Appius's house 
being burnt down.^ Farewell. 

^ From his trying to warm it with a stove. 



58 CICERO S LETTERS • 

n LETTER XIII. 

Marcus to his brother Quintus, greeting, 

1. I LAUGHED at the black snow;^ and I am very glad that 
you are in a cheerful humour, and so well incHned to jest. 
About Pompey I agree with you; or rather you agree with 
me. For as you know, I have been for a long time talking 
of nothing but Csesar.^ Believe me, I have taken him to 
my heart, nor am I to be torn from him. 

2. Now you must learn what was done at the Ides. The 
tenth day was fixed for the impeachment of Coelius; and 
Domitius^ had not collected judges in sufficient number. I 
am afraid lest that rude and brutal man, Servius Pola, may 
come to the accusation; for our friend Coelius is violently 
attacked by the whole train of Clodius's friends. There is 
as yet nothing certain; but we are kept in a state of alarm. 
On the same day a very full senate assembled to hear the 
ambassadors of the Tyrians:^ on the other side, the Syrian 
farmers of the revenue mustered in great numbers ; Gabinius 
was violently attacked; however, the farmers were roughly 
handled by Domitius, for having escorted him on horseback. 
Our friend Caius Lamia spoke somewhat boldly, when Domi- 
tius had said, " It is through your fault, Roman knights, that 
these things have happened, because yoa are such profligate 
judges." He replied : " We judge ; you praise." Xothing 
was done that day, and night put an end to the discussion. 

3. On the days appointed for holding the comitia, which 
come immediately after the Quirinalia, Appius explains his 
notion that he is not prevented by the Pupian law from 
holding a senate, and that on the contrary, it is especially 
provided by the Gabinian law, that the senate is obliged to 

^ This has some reference to a ridiculous doctrine of Anaxagoras, 
that snow must be black, because water, of which it was composed, was 
black. 

2 Cicero had lately made a very impressive speech in the senate, 
extolling Caesar's conduct in his province in the highest terms. 

2 This Domitius was Cnseus D. the praetor. The Domitius men- 
tioned a few lines lower down, was Domitius Ahenobarbus, the consul. 

^ The citizens of Tyre had sent an embassy, with complaints of the 
extortions of the farmers of the revenue in the province of Syria. 
Gabinius, as has been already said, had been governor of Syria. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 59 

assemble to give audience to ambassadors every day from the 
1st of February till the 1st of March. In thi way they 
think that the comitia may be put off till the month of 
March. But on these days of the comitia the tribunes of 

"the people declare that they will bring on the question 
about Gabinius. I collect all reports, to have some news to 
send to you ; but, as you see, matter itself fails me. 

4. I return, therefore, to Callisthenes^ and Phihstus,^ in 
whose works I see you are occupied. Callisthenes indeed is 
relating a common and well-known set of transactions, in a 
style such as that in which several of the Greeks express 
themselves. But the Sicilian is an admirable writer, impres- 
sive, acute, concise ; almost a little Thucydides, but which of 
his books you have, (for there are two volumes of them,) 
or whether you have them both, I know not. He pleases me 
most in his account of Dionysius. For Dionysius was a 
great intriguer, and made himself very familiar with Philistus. 
But as to what you add in your letter, are you thinking of 

. undertaking a history? In my judgment, you may do so. 
And since you furnish couriers, you shall have at the Luper- 
calia an account of what is done to-day. Amuse yourself 
with my Cicero as weU as you can. 



LETTER XIY. 
Marcus to his brother Quintus, greeting, 

1. I HAVE as yet received but two letters from you: one 
of them 'written just after I had left you; the other dated 
from Ariminum. The additional ones, which you say that 
you sent, I never received. I have been amusing myself 
in the neighbourhood of Cumae and Pompeii, pleasantly 
enough, except that ^I was without your company; and 
T intended to stay in^hose parts till the 1st of June. I 
was writing those political treatises which I had mentioned 
to you; a very large and laborious work; but still, if the 
result is to my satisfaction, labour will have been well em- 
ployed; if not, I will throw it into the sea, which I have 

^ Callisthenes was an Olynthian, and had written a life of Alexander. 
2 Philistus was a Sicilian, and wrote many books, and among them 
an account of Dionysius the elder. 



60 Cicero's letters 

before my ejes> while I am writing. I shall attempt some 
other things/ toOj since I cannot remain idle. 

2. I will attend carefully to your injunctions, both as to 
conciliating same men, and avoiding to alienate others. But 
it will be my xhief object to see your Cicero, and mine, I 
mean, every day; but I will examine as often as I can, what 
he is learning; and, unless he is above it, I will even offer 
myself as his teacher; an employment in which I have 
obtained some practice in my leisure during these few days, 
by training my own Cicero the younger. 

3. You, (as you write me word you will, and as I should 
be quite certain of your doing most carefully, even if you 
did not write;) you, I say, will take care to digest my 
instructions ; follow them up, and fulfil them. When I come 
to Rome I will never let one single courier of Caesar's go 
without giving him a letter for you ; but while I have been 
here (you will excuse my silence), there has been no one to 
whom I could give one before this Marcus Orfius, a Eoman 
knight, attached to me, both as being exceedingly intimate 
with me, and as being from the municipality of Atella, which 
you know is faithful to me. I therefore recommend him to 
you in an extraordinary degree, as being a man of a high 
consideration at home, and of great influence away from 
home. Take care to bind him to yourself by your libe- 
rality. He is a military tribune in our army. You will 
find him a man of a very grateful disposition, and eager to 
be of service to you. I press upon you earnestly to be very 
civil to Trebatius. Farewell. 



LETTER XY. A. 

Marcus Cicero to his brother Quintus, greeting. 

1. On the 2d of June, the day on which I arrived at 
Eome, I received your letter dated from Placentia ; and then, 
the next day, I received a second dated at Blandeus,^ with 
a letter from Csesar, full of expressions of respect, zeal to 
serve me, and courtesy. These are things of great, or rather 
of the very greatest consequence ; for they contribute very 
1 There is some error in the text here. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTU^^. 61 

greatly to our reputation and high dignity. But, believe me, 
whom you know well, that what I value most in all these 
matters I have already secured; namely, that, in the first 
place, I see you contributing so much to our common dig- 
nity; secondly, the extraordinary liking of Julius Csesar for 
me, a man whom I prefer to all the honours which he wishes 
me to expect from him. His letter wa.s dated at the same 
time with your own ; the beginning of it is, how acceptable 
your arrival was to him, and his recollection of our old 
friendship ; then assuring me that he would take care that in 
the midst of my sorrow and regret for your absence, while 
you are away, I should be pleased, above all, that you were 
with him. The letter delighted me amazingly. 

2. You, therefore, act in a most brotherly spirit when you 
exhort me. though in truth I am running of my own accord 
the same way, to devote all my energies to his single service; 
and perhaps by my eager zeal I shall do what often happens 
to travellers when they are in haste, that if by chance they 
have got up later than they intended, they still, by making 
haste, arrive where they wish earlier than they would have 
done if they had lain awake a great part of the night ; and 
so now I, since I have been asleep a long time as to paying 
attention to that man, though you in truth have often tried 
to wake me, shall now by my speed make amends for my 
slowness, both on horseback, and (since you write me word 
that my poem is approved by him) in the coach and four of 
poetry; only give me Britain to paint with your colours 
and my pencil. But of what am I thinking? what spare 
time presents itself to me, particularly while I remain at 
Eome, as he begs me to do ? However, I will see. For 
perhaps, as is often the case, my affection for you will over- 
come every difficulty. He thanks me with a good deal of 
humour, and with great civility too, for having sent him 
Trebatius; for he says that in all that number of persons 
who were with him, there was not one who could draw a 
bail-bond. I asked him for the tribuneship for Marcus 
Curtius, (for Domitius would have thought that he was being 
turned into ridicule if he had been solicited by me, since it 
is a daily saying of his, that he cannot make even a tribune 
of the soldiers; and even in the senate he rallied Appius his 
colleague, saying that he had gone to Csesar, with the view of 



62 CICERO'S LETTEES 

getting «ome tribuneship or other,) but only for the year 
after next. And that was what Curtius wished too. 

3. Know that, as y ou think it behoves you to be, in regard 
to public affairs and our private enmities, so I myself both 
am, and shall be, of a very gentle and moderate demeanour. 

4. Affairs at E-ome were in this state. There was some 
expectation of the 'sbmitia, but a doubtful one: there was 
some suspicion of a dictatorship, but not even that was 
certain. There is a, perfect cessation of all business in the 
courts of law, but more as if the state was growing indolent 
from age than from real tranquillity. Our own opinion deli- 
vered in the senate was of such a kind that others agreed 
with it more than we did ourselves. 

Such are the evils of disastrous war.^ 



LETTER XY. B. 

Marcus Cicero to his brother Quintus, greeting, 

1. What is to be done shall be done with a pen, and the 
finest ink, and glazed paper : for you say that you have 
hardly been able to read my last letters, for which, however, 
my brother, there were none of the reasons which you fancy; 
for I was neither busy, nor had I been worried or angry with 
any one; but I always make it a practice, whatever pen 
comes first to hand, to use it as if it were a good one. 

2. But listen now, my most excellent and kind brother, 
while I answer the things which you wrote in this same short 
letter of yours in a very business-like manner. As to what 
you ask, that I should write to you without concealing any- 
thing, or dissembling anything, or saying anything merely 
for the sake of pleasing you, but frankly and as a brother, 
that is, whether you should hasten, as we said, or, if there 
should be sufficient reason, delay, for the purpose of setting 
yourself clear, — if, my dear Quintus, it were any unimportant 
matter on which you were asking me my wishes, still after 
having left it to yourself to do what you thought best, I 
should point out what I wished myself But in the present 

^ Toiavff 6 rXrifjLav Trc'Ae/^os i^epydC^rai. A Hne from the SuppUcea 
of Euripides. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUI^'TUS. 63 

state of affairs, you ask me plainly what sort of year I expect 
the ensuing one to be ; certainly one of tranquillity for me, 
or at least one of very great security, as the state of my own 
house, and my reception in the forum, and the way in which 
I am gTceted at the theatre, indicate every day. And^ * * -st 
no man is unwilling to see * * * that I am in favour with 
both Caesar and Pompey — these things give me confidence. 
If any rage from that senseless man > breaks out, everything 
is prepared for putting him down. 

3. These are my real sentiments and opinions, and I write 
them to you in all plainness. And I beg of you not to feel 
a doubt, speaking not like a flatterer, but as a brother; so 
that, for the sake of your enjoying the pleasant condition in 
which I find myself, I should wish you to come at the time 
which you have mentioned. But still I should prefer beyond, 
that the events which you expect * * * * And I attach 
great consequence to your abundance, and to the expectations 
of your obligations being acquitted. Of this you may be 
assured, that if we succeed, nothing can be more fortunate 
than we shall be when freed from all annoyance. There is 
not much which is wanting to make us happy after our own 
fashion; and that is very easy to be procured, provided I 
keep my health. 

4. An amazing degree of corruption prevails again; never 
was it so great. In the middle of July, interest was double 
what it had been, from the coalition into which Memmius 
entered with Domitius for the sake of beating Scaurus. 
Messala has a bad chance ; ^ I do not exaggerate, when 1 say 

^ There is something lost here, which makes this sentence unintel- 
hgible ; and it is probable that there is a little corruption in the former 
part of the letter, and a few sentences later. 

2 Clodins. 

^ The candidates for the consulship in the next year, 701 a.u.c, 
were Memmius, Domitius Calvinus, JSmilius Scaurus, and Valerius 
Messala. Memmius and Domitius had won over the existing consuls 
by a promise of procuring them whatever provinces they chose ; but at 
last Pompey persuaded Memmius to break with Domitius, and join the 
triumvirs. The senate instituted an inquiry. The year 700 passed 
without any election of consuls for the ensuing year. Interest rose to 
8 per cent, a-month ; and the year 701 opened with an interregnum, 
and it was not till half the year had elapsed, that Cnaeus Domitius 
Calvinus, and Messala, were elected consuls for the remainder of the 
year. 



64 ClCERO's LETTERS 

that the prerogative century will get above eighty thousand 
pounds for its vote. The business is extremely unpopular ; 
the candidates for the tribuneship have come to an agree- 
ment^ that every one of them shall place above four thousand 
pounds a-piece in Cato's hands, as a pledge to conduct their 
canvass as he approves ; and those who forfeit their pledge are 
to forfeit the money. And if the comitia for their election 
is really unbribed, as i^ expected, Cato alone will have had 
more influence than all^the laws and all the judges. 



LETTER XYI. 

Marcus Cicero to his brother Quintus, greeting, 

1. When you have received a letter from me written in 
the hand of my secretary, you must consider that I had not 
even a little leisure ; when it is written in my own hand, that 
I had a little. For you must understand, that I was never 
more distracted by causes and trials, and that too at a most 
unhealthy time of the year, and when the heat is greatest. 
But this, since that is your advice, must be borne; nor must 
I give cause for appearing to have been wanting, either to 
your hopes or opinion; especially when, although that is 
somewhat more difficult, I am still likely to gain great 
influence and great dignity from these exertions; therefore, 
as you wish, I take great pains to oflend no one, and even 
to be loved by those very men who are sorry to see me 
so united with Csesar, and also to be earnestly caressed and 
loved by all impartial persons, and even by those who are 
inclined to favour the other side. 

2. While there was a most violent discussion in the senate 
for many days on the subject of corruption, because the con- 
sular candidates had gone such lengths that it could not be 
endured any longer, I was not present in the senate. I de- 
termined not to come forward to offer any remedy for the 
evils of the commonwealth without strong protection. 

3. The day that I wrote this, Drusus had been acquitted 
of prevarication^ by the tribunes of the treasury, by foui 

' Prevarication was the betrayal of his chent's cause by an advocate 
wno had undertaken it. 



TO HIS BROTHTilR QUINTUS. 65 

votes in all, after the senators and knights had condemned 
him. The same day, in the afternoon, I appeared in court 
to defend Yatinius; that was not a difficult task. The 
comitia are postponed till the month of September. The trial 
of Scaurus will be brought on immediately, and we shall 
not be wanting in our exertions on his behalf. I by no 
means approved of the Messmates of Sophocles, although I 
see that the piece was very neatly acted by you. 

4. Now I come to that, which perhaps ought to have made 
the first part of my letter. how delightful to me are your 
letters from Britain. I was afraid of the ocean : I was afraid 
of the shore of the island. I do not indeed despise the 
obstacles which may yet remain, but they present more 
ground for hope than for fear, and I am anxious more because 
of the eagerness of my expectation than from any alarm. And 
I see that you have an admirable subject for writing about. 
What a situation you have to describe, what natural cha- 
racteristics of circumstances and places, what customs of the 
people, what nations and battles, and even what a commander ! 
I will with all my heart help you, as you ask, in whatever you 
wish; and will send you the verses for which you ask, like 
an owl to Athens. 

5. But ah ! I see that I am kept in the dark by you ; for 
how, my dear brother, did Csesar express himself about mj 
verses ? for he wrote me word before, that he had read my first 
book, and praised the beginning so much that he says he has 
not read anything better even in Greek. What came after, 
he thought, was in some places a little paOvfjiorepa (more 
careless), this is the very word that he uses. Tell me the 
truth, is it the matter, or the style that does not please him ? 
There is no reason why you should fear to tell me the truth, 
for I shall not be an atom the less satisfied with myseif. 
Write to me on this subject with frankness, and, as jou 
always do, with brotherly afiection. 



66 CIOERO'S LETTERS 



BOOK III. 



LETTER I. 
Marcus Cicero to his brother Quintus, greeting. 

1. 1. After the great heat, (for T do not recollect ever 
having felt greater^) I refreshed myself in the neighbourhood 
of Arpinum, with the extreme agreeableness of the river, 
during the days of the games, ^ having recommended the 
men of my tribe to Philotimus. I was at Arcanum on the 
10th of September : there I found Messidius and Philoxenus, 
and the water which they had contracted to bring near the 
villa flowing pleasantly enough, especially considering the 
great general drought ; and they said that they would collect 
it in somewhat larger quantities. Everything was going on 
well with Herus.2 At your Manlian farm T found Diphilus 
slower than Diphilus; yet nothing remained for him to do, 
except the bath-rooms, the colonnade to walk under, and 
the aviary. The villa pleased me exceedingly, because the 
paved portico had an appearance of great dignity, which was 
now for the first time visible to me, since it is completely 
uncovered, and the columns are polished. Everything now 
depends on the ceiling being elegant, which shall be an object 
of attention to me. The pavements appeared to me to be 
done correctly; some of the rooms I did not quite like, and 
ordered them to be altered. 

2. Where they say that you have written orders for a small 
hall to be made in the colonnade, the place pleased me 
better as it is; for there did not seem to be room enough even 
for a little hall, nor is one usually made, except in houses in 
which there is a larger hall; nor could it have any bed- 
chambers attached to it, or apartments of that kind. But 
now, even from the mere beauty of the vaulted roof, it will 
get the character of an excellent summer retreat.^ However, 

1 The Koman games took place in September. ^ The bailiff. 

^ Manutius thinks this quite corrupt and unintelHgible. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 67 

if you are of a different opinion, write again at the first 
opportunity. In the bath-rooms I have moved forward the 
stoves into the other comer of the dressing-room ; because 
they were before placed in such a manner, that their chimney, 
from which the heat comes, was situated under the bed- 
chambers. But I greatly approved of having a tolerably 
large bed-chamber and a lofty winter-room, because they 
were of a good size, and admirably situated on one side of 
the covered walk, — on that side, I mean, which is next to the 
bath-rooms. Diphilus had not put the pillars upright, nor 
opposite to one another ; he will accordingly pull them down 
again. Some day or other he will learn how to use a perpen- 
dicular and a line. Altogether, I hope that Diphilus's work 
will be finished in a few months, for Csesius, who was with 
me on that occasion, gives most diligent attention to it. 

IL 3. From that place we went straight along the Yitu- 
larian road to your Fufidian farm, which, according to the 
last communication, I had bought of Fufidius at Arpinum, 
for a little more than eight thousand pounds. I never saw a 
place more shady in the summer, with water flowing through 
the land in many places, and in great abundance. What 
would you have ? Caesius thought that you would easily be 
able to irrigate fifty acres of meadow-land. This, at all events, 
which I understand better, I can affirm positively, that you 
will have a villa of exceeding pleasantness, with a fish-pond, 
and springs of water besides, and a palsestra, and a green 
wood. I hear that you wish to retain this farm near Bovillse ; 
what you may choose to do about it, you will decide yourself. 
Calvus said that though the water was excepted, and the 
right over that water reserved, and though a service^ lay upon 
the farm, still we could keep up the price if we chose to sell 
it. I had Messidius with me : he said that he had agreed 
with you at three sestertii'^ a foot ; and observed that he 
himself had measured the distance, by steps, making fourteen 
hundred paces. To me it appeared more; but I will under- 
take to say, that the money could nowhere be more advan- 
tageously spent. I had sent for Chilo from Yenafrum j but 

Service, servitus, on a piece of land, when there was a right of way 
through it, of carrying water through it, of taking water from it, 
feeding cattle on it, &c. - 

^ The sestertius was equal to 1 penny 3f farthings. 

f2 



(jS Cicero's letters 

that very day a subterraneous passage atVenafrum had crushed 
four of his fellow-workmen and apprentices. 

4. On the 13th of September I was at Laterinm. I saw 
the road, which pleased me so much, that I thought it was 
a public work, with the exception of a hundred and fifty 
paces ; for I measured it from the little bridge, which is close 
to the temple of Farina on the side of Satricum. At that 
spot, dust has been thrown in and not gravel ; but that shall 
be altered; and that part of the road is very steep; but I was 
told that it could not have been carried in any other direction, 
especially as you did not wish to have it go through the farm 
of Locusta, or through that of Yarro. Varro had almost com- 
pleted the roads through his estate before. Locusta had not 
touched his; but I shall call upon him at Rome, and, as I 
expect, shall move him ; and at the same time I will ask 
Marcus Taurus, who is now at Rome, and who, I hear, gave 
you a promise on the subject, about carrying the water through 
his farm. 

5. I conceived a good opinion of Nicephorus, your bailiff, 
and I asked him, whether you had given him any charge 
about that little building at Laterium of which you spoke to 
me. And then he told me, in reply, that he himself had 
contracted for that work for about a hundred and thirty 
pounds; but that afterwards you had added a good deal 
to the work to be done, but nothing to the money to be paid 
for it ; and that, therefore, he had given up the contract. I 
am in truth exceedingly well-pleased that you should add 
those things as you determined ; although the villa which 
at present exists, seems to be something like philosophy re- 
proving the insanity visible in other villas : however, that 
addition will give great pleasure. 

I praised, too, your ornamental gardener ; he clothes every- 
thing so with ivy, not only the foundations of the villa, but 
the spaces between the pillars of the covered walk. So that 
those figures in the Greek dresses appear to be cutting the 
trees into shape, and to be selling the ivy. As for the dressing- 
room, nothing can be more cool and mossy. 

6. You have now heard nearly all that 1 have to say about 
country affairs. He and Philotimus and Cincius are press- 
ing forward the polishing of your town-house; but I myself 
also frequently go to look at it, as is easy to be done ; and I 



TO HIS BKOTHER QUINTUS. 69 

therefore hope you will feel relieved from that cause of 
anxiety. 

III. 7. As to what you are always asking me about Cicero, 
I pardon you, indeed ; but I also wish you to pardon me. For 
I will not allow you to love him more than I do myself; 
and I wish that he had been with me during those days 
in the country near Arpinum, as he himself had desired, 
and I no less. As to Pomponia, if it seems good to you, I wish 
you would send an order, that when we go anywhere she is 
to go with us, and take the boy. I shall raise a perfect 
uproar if I can have him with me without his having any- 
thing to do j for at Eome he has no breathing room. You 
know that I promised you that before gratuitously : what do 
you think now that so great a bribe is offered me from you ? 

8. I now come to your letters ; of which I received several 
while I was in the neighbourhood of Arpinum ; for three 
were delivered to me on one day, and indeed, as they seemed, 
all written by you at one time. One was at great length, in 
which the first statement was, that an earlier day was men- 
tioned in your letter than in that of Csesar. Oppius some- 
times does that from necessity ; because, after he has arranged 
to send off the couriers, and has received a letter from us, he 
is hindered by some new business ; and of necessity sends it 
off later than he had intended to do ; nor do we, when the 
letter is once dated, care about the date being altered. 

9. You mention Caesar's exceeding regard for us : you will 
do your best to cherish this ; we too will increase it by all the 
means in our power. With regard to Pompey, I do with all 
diligence, and will continue to do, what you advise. That 
my permission for you to remain longer is acceptable to you, 
though to my own great sorrow and regret, I am yet partly 
glad. What your object is in sending for horsebreakers and 
others I have no notion ; there is not one of that sort of people 
who will not expect a present from you equal to a suburban 
farm. And as for your mixing up my friend Trebatius with 
that fellow, for that you have no foundation. I sent him to 
Caesar, because he had previously satisfied me ; if he does not 
please him equally, I am not bound to anything, and I acquit 
and release you also of any charge in respect of him. With 
regard to your statement, that you are every day more and 
in ore esteemed bv Caesar, I am rejoiced beyond all expression. 



70 Cicero's letters 

I am also very much attached to Balbus, who is, as you write, 
an active assistant in that business; I am very glad too that 
my friend Trebonius is beloved by you, and you by him. 

10. As to what you write about the tribuneship, I asked 
it for Curtius by name ; and Csesar wrote me back word that 
it was secured for Curtius, also mentioning him by name ; 
and he reproached me for my shamefacedness in asking. If 
I ever ask for any one again, (as I told Oppius too, that 
he might write to him,) I shall easily allow a refusal to be 
given me, since those who are troublesome to me^ do not easily 
allow refusals to be given them from me. I love Curtius, (as 
I told the man himself,) on account not only of your asking, 
but of your testimony in his favom*, — because from your 
letters I easily perceived his zeal for our safety. 

With respect to the affairs of Britain, I learned from your 
letters that there was no reason either why we should fear, 
or why we should rejoice. With respect to public affairs, on 
which you wish Tiro to write to you, I was already writing to 
you rather carelessly myself ; because I knew that everything, 
as well of the smallest as of the greatest importance, was sent 
to Caesar. 

lY. 11. I have now completed my answer to your longest 
letter: hear now as to your little one; in which the first 
remark is, about Clodius's letter to Caesar, in which affair I 
approve of Caesar's conduct, in not granting you leave, though 
you asked it in the most affectionate manner, to write a single 
word of answer to that Fury. The next observation is about 
the speech of Marius Calventius. I marvel at your saying 
that you think I should write a reply to it, especially as no 
one is likely to read it if I write nothing in reply, while all 
the children will learn my answer to him by heart as a lesson. 

I have begun those books of mine which you are looking 
for, but am unable to finish them at the present time. I have 
completed the required speeches for Scaurus and for Plancius. 
The poem to Caesar, which I had composed, I have destroyed.^ 
What you ask, I will write for you, since the springs them- 
selves are now thirsty, if I have any room. 

^ Noble considers that the text is here incorrect or defective. 

2 Incidi. Ernesti interprets this verb by conscindere ; and Schiller 
agrees with him in giving it the sense of "cutting to pieces," or 
" annulling." 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 71 

12. I now come to the third letter. As to what you say, 
that Balbus is soon coming to Eome with a number of com- 
panions, and that he will be constantly with me till the 
middle of May ; that will be very pleasant and delightful to 
me. As to the exhortations which you give m«, in the same 
letter, as oftentimes before, to ambition and to diligence, I will 
observe them; but when am I to enjoy life ? 

13. A fourth letter was delivered to me on the 13th of 
September, which you had dated from Britain on the 10th 
of August. In it there was no news, except about the Erigona ; 
which if I receive from Oppius, I will write you word what 
I think of it; and I have no doubt that it will give me 
pleasure. And (a matter w^hich I have passed over) with 
respect to the person who, you say, wrote to Caesar about the 
applause which Milo received, I readily allow Csesar to imagine 
that the applause was very great ; and, in fact, so it was; and 
yet the applause which is given to him appears in some degree 
to be given to us. 

14. A very old letter from you has also been brought me, 
but brought rather late, in which you give me instructions 
about the temple of Tellus, and the portico of Catulus. Both 
works are going on with all speed ; at the temple of Tellus, in- 
deed, I have also placed your statue. Also, as to the wishes that 
you express about the gardens, I never was very desirous of 
such things ; and my house now makes up to me for the want 
of the luxury of a garden. 

When I came to Rome, on the 19th of September, I found 
the roof of your house completed, which, above the chambers, 
you had decided should not have any great number of gables ; 
but it slopes down in anything but a neat manner to the roof 
of the colonnade below. While I have been absent, my Cicero 
has not ceased from his attendance on the rhetorician : you 
have no reason to be anxious about his attainments, since 
you know his natural abilities ; and his studious disposition I 
see myself. All his other interests I look to, as if I thought 
that I were going surety for them. 

V. 15. As yet, three parties are prosecuting Gabinius : 

Lucius Lentulus, the son of the flamen, who has already lodged 

an accusation of treason^ against him ; Tiberius Nero, with his 

well-disposed backers; and Caius Memmius, the tribune of 

^ Majestas. See note, p. 74. 



72 CICERO 'S LETTERS 1 i 

the people, with Lucius Capito. He arrived in the city on 
the 20th of September; no entrance was ever more mean or 
more sohtary. But I do not dare to place any confidence in 
these trials. Because Cato was indisposed^ he has not as yet 
been prosecuted for peculation. Pompey labours very hard 
to reconcile me to him ; but he has not succeeded as yet, and, 
if I retain any portion of my liberty, he shall not succeed. I 
am extremely anxious for a letter from you. 

16. As to what you write me word that you have heard, 
namely, that I interfered in the coalition of the candidates for 
the consulship, it is not true ; for agreements were made in 
that coalition of such a character (which Memmius subse- 
quently exposed) that no respectable person ought to have 
been concerned in them : and, besides, it was not a proceed- 
ing for me, to have anything to do with a coalition from which 
Messala was excluded, — a man with whom I agree perfectly in 
all points; and, in my opinion, also with Memmius. I have 
already done many things for Domitius, which he wished, and 
which he requested of me ; and I have laid Scaurus under 
great obligations to me by defending him. As yet it has been 
uncertain, both when the comitia would take place, and who 
were to be the new consuls. 

17. When I was just folding up this letter, a courier 
arrived from you on the 21st of September, having made the 
journey in twenty days. how anxious I am ! How much 
I have grieved over that most kind letter from Csesar; bat 
the more kind it was, the greater grief did that misfortune 
of his cause me.^ But I come to your own letter. In the 
first place, I approve above all things of your intention of 
remaining, especially since, as you write me word, you have 
consulted Csesar on the subject. I wonder that Oppius should 
have said anything to Publius, for I did not like the man. 

18. As to what you write in your enclosure, that I should 
be appointed one of Pompey's lieutenants in the middle 
of September, I have not heard it; and I have written to 
Caesar, that Yibullius brought directions from Csesar about 
my stay to Pompey, but not to Oppius. With what object ? 
Although I detained Oppius, because the right of speaking 

^ It seems probable that this refers to a storm mentioned in the 
fourth book of his account of the Gallic war, in which he lost a great 
number of ships. His daughter Julia, too, died nearly about this time. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 73 

firat to Pompey belonged to Yibullius ; for Csesar had talked 
the matter over in an interview with him ; to Oppius he had 
written. However, I can have no second thoughts in Csesar's 
afiairs. He is next to you and to our children in my heart ; 
so near, indeed, that he is almost equal to them. I seem to 
myself to feel thus from judgment ; for indeed I ought ; but 
still I am warmed with love for him. 

YI. 19. When I had written these last lines, which are in 
my own hand, your Cicero came in to us to supper, as Pom- 
ponia was supping out. He gave me your letter to read, 
which he had received a short time before; a letter written 
in the Aristophanic spirit, being in truth both pleasant and 
sensible; and I was greatly pleased with it. He also gave 
me that other letter of yours, in which you enjoin him to 
attach himself as much to me as to his tutor. How those 
letters delighted him! how they gratified me! Nothing 
can be more engaging than that boy, — no one can be more 
attached to me. These lines I dictated to Tiro while at 
supper, that you may not be surprised at their being in 
a different hand. 

20. Your letters were very acceptable also to Annalis, as 
they showed that you were very anxious about him, and, 
at the same time, assisted him with most serious advice. 
Publius Servilius the father, from the letters which he says 
have been sent him from Caesar, intimates that you have done 
what was very acceptable to him, in having spoken with 
great courtesy and great earnestness of his attachment to 
Csesar. 

21. When I had returned to Rome from the neighbour- 
hood of Arpinum, I was told that a horsebreaker had set out 
to go to you. I cannot say that I was astonished at his 
having acted so like a barbarian as to go without any letter 
from me to you; 1 merely say that it was vexatious to me, — 
for I had been thinking of it for a long time, — in consequence 
of what you wrote to me, that if there should be anything 
which I should wish to be conveyed to you with extra- 
ordinary care, I was to give it to him; because, in truth, in 
these letters which I usually send to you, I generally write 
nothing which would cause me any annoyance if it fell into 
other hands. I used to keep myself for Minucius, and 
Salvius^ and Labeo. Labeo will either go at a late period^ or 



74 Cicero's letters 

will remain here. The horsebreaker did not even ask if I 
wished to send anything. 

22. Titus Pinarius sends very kindly-expressed letters about 
you to me ; saying that he is beyond all measure delighted 
with your letters, conversation, and, besides, with your sup- 
pers. That man has always pleased me, and his brother is a 
great deal with me. Do you, therefore, as you have begun 
to do, cherish that young man. 

VII. 23. As I have had this letter under my hands several 
days, owing to the delay of the couriers, many different 
things have consequently been thrown into it, one thing at 
one time, and another at another ; as for instance this : Titus 
Anicius has already often said to me, that he should not 
hesitate to purchase a suburban villa for you, if he could 
meet with one. In regard to this remark of his, I cannot but 
wonder at two things : that though you write to him about 
buying you a suburban villa, you not only do not write to me 
about it, but even write to quite the contrary effect: and 
also, that when you are writing to him, you recollect nothing 
about him, nothing about those letters of his which you 
showed me when you were at Tusculum, and nothing about 
the precepts of Epicharmus, " Take notice how he treats any 
one else." You forget, in short, the man's whole countenance, 
and language, and disposition; and, as I conjecture, just as 
if — ^ but to these things you must look yourself. 

24. Take care that I may know what you really wish 
about this suburban villa, and take care at the same time that 
he does not cause any trouble. What more have I to say? 
What] Oh, this : Gabinius, on the 28th of September, 
entered the city by night; and to-day, at the eighth hour, 
when, according to the edict of Caius Alfius, he ought to have 
appeared to the accusation of majesty,^ he was almost over- 
whelmed by the concourse and by the detestation of the whole 
people. Nothing ever was more contemptible than his ap- 
pearance. Piso, however, comes very near to him; I am 
therefore thinking of introducing a marvellous episode in the 

* Orellius says that this is not an aposiopesiSf but that some Greek 
word or phrase is lost. 

2 Majesty was nearly equivalent to treason. It was a general 
term for any offence committed against the Roman people, or its 
security. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 75 

second of my books : Apollo in the council of the gods pre- 
dicting what sort of return that of the two generals will be, of 
whom one has lost his army, and the other has sold it. 

25, Caesar wrote me a letter from Britain on the 1st of 
September, which I received on the 28th, giving a satis- 
factory account of the affairs of Britain; in it, that I may 
not be surprised at receiving no letter from you, he says that 
he had been without your company, as he had gone to the 
coast. I have not sent him any answer to that letter, not 
even to congratulate him, because of his private mourning. 
Again and again, my dear brother, I beg you to take care of 
your health. 



LETTER II. 

Maixus Cicero to his hr other QuintuSy greeting. 

1. On the 10th of October, Salvius went by sea to Ostia, 
late in the evening, with the things which you wished to have 
sent to you from home. On the same day, Memmius had 
given Gabinius a warming before the people with so lucid an 
accusation, that Calidius was unable to utter a single word on 
his behalf. But the day after, which was coming on as I was 
writing this before dawn, a great argument was to be held 
at Gate's between Memmius and Tiberius Nero, and Gaius 
Antonius and Lucius Antonius, the sons of Marcus, as to who 
should manage the prosecution against Gabinius. We thought 
that it would be allotted to Memmius, although there was 
an extraordinary struggle on the part of Nero. What would 
you have? The matter is well pressed forward, did not our 
friend Pompey, in spite of both gods and men, upset the 
business. 

2. Understand now the boldness of the man, and that some- 
thing still amuses us in so distressed a condition of public 
affairs. After Gabinius, wherever he went, had said that he 
was demanding a triumph, and after this good general had 
suddenly entered the city by night, (as if, evidently, it had been 
the city of an enemy,) he did not venture to present himself 
before the senate. In the meantime, on the tenth day after 
his arrival, on which he ought to have given in his report of 
the numbers of the enemies and of our troops, he sneaked 



7^' CICERO'S LETTERS 

into the senate-house with a very small following. When he 
was about to depart, he was detained by the consuls. The 
farmers of the revenues were introduced. The man, being 
attacked on all sides, and being wounded by me most of all, 
could bear it no longer, and with a trembling voice called 
me an exile. On this, (0 ye gods ! nothing more honourable 
ever happened to me,) the whole senate to a man rose in an 
uproar against him, so that they came close to him ; while 
the farmers of the revenue started up with a similar noise 
and rush. What more do you ask"? All of them behaved 
as if you yourself had been there. Nothing can be more 
complimentary than the language of men out-of-doors. I, 
however, restrain myself from accusing him, with difficulty 
indeed, but I do restrain myself, not only because I do not 
wish to oppose Pompey, (the business which presses me about 
Milo is quite enough,) but because we have no judges whom 
we can trust. I dread a failure. I may take also into con- 
sideration the malevolence of men, and I am afraid that if I 
were to accuse him, something might happen to him; nor 
do I despair that the matter may be accomplished without 
me, though in some degree by my means. 

3. All who are candidates for the consulship are impeached 
on the charge of bribery. Domitius by Memmius, Memmius 
by Quintus Curtius, a good and accomplished young man; 
Messala by Quintus Pompey, Scaurus by Triarius. It is a 
great measure in agitation, because the ruin either of the 
men, or of the laws, is threatened. Some efforts are made, 
that no trials may take place. The affair appears to point to 
an interregnum. The consuls wish to hold the comitia; the 
impeached parties are against it, and Memmius above all, 
because on the arrival of Caesar he hopes to become consul. 
But he has an extraordinarily bad chance. Domitius and 
Messala appeared sure of success ; Scaurus had lost heart. 
Appius asserts, that if it were not for a lex curiata, he should 
succeed our friend Lentulus, who on that day showed won- 
derful vigour against Gabinius, (a thing which I had almost 
forgotten to mention;) he accused him of treason; names of 
witnesses were given in ; while Gabinius did not say a word. 
You now know the affairs of the forum. At home things go 
on well, and the house itself is proceeding with great rapidity 
under the hands of the contractors. 



TO HIS BHOTHER QUINTUS. 77 

LETTER III. 
Marcus Cicero to his brother Quintus, greeting, 

1. The hand of my secretary may be a sign to you how 
busy I am. Be assured that there does not a day pass in 
which I do not speak on behalf of some accused person. 
Thus, whatever I compose or meditate, I generally throw into 
the time of my walk. In this state is my public business : 
our domestic affairs go on as I wish. The boys are well ; 
they learn with great diligence ; they are taught with great 
pains; they love us, and love one another. The polishing 
of both our houses is going on; while your rural matters 
at Arcanum and Laterium are advancing to completion.^ 
Besides, in one of my letters, I omitted nothing to give you 
a clear account about the water, and the road. 

But this subject of anxiety disturbs and annoys me, that 
for the space of now more than fifty days, not only no letter 
has come from you, none from C^sar, none from that country, 
but not even a single report ; and that sea, and that country, 
keep me now in a state of anxiety. Nor do I cease (as is 
the case with persons in love) to imagine the things which I 
least wish. I do not therefore now ask you to write to me 
about yourself and about affairs in that quarter, (for I know 
that you never omit to do so when you have an oppor- 
tunity,) but I wish you to know, that I scarcely ever longed 
for anything so much, as, when I wrote this, I did for a letter 
from you. 

2. Hear now what is going on in the republic. Day after 
day appointed for the comitia is constantly cancelled by 
notices of ill omens, to the great joy of the well-affected 
citizens, in such unpopularity are the consuls on account of 
the suspicion of their having bargained for bribes from the 
candidates. There are four candidates for the consulship ; 
all are prosecuted ; the causes are difficult ones ; but still we 
will exert ourselves that Messala may come off safe; a result 
which is even connected with the safety of the rest. Publius 
Sylla has impeached Gabinius of bribery, his stepson Mem- 
mius supporting the accusation, as well as his brother Caecilius, 

^ A corrupt passage, says Orellius. There are various readings, but 
Done satisfactory. 



7 5 CICERO S LETTERS 

and his son Sylla. Lucius Torquatus made objections, but 
failed in his purpose, to the great joy of all men. 

3. Do you ask, what is to become of Gabinius? We shall 
know in three days about the impeachment for treason ; on 
which charge he is weighed down by the detestation of all 
classes; and is especially damaged by the evidence. He has 
very cool accusers; the bench is of a varied character; the 
chief judge, Alfius, is a man of high and resolute temper. 
Pompey is earnest in canvassing the judges; how it will end 
I know not; but I see no room for him in the city. I have 
a moderate wish for his downfal, but the faintest possible as 
to the result of the whole proceedings. 

4. You have now an account of almost everything. I will 
add this one particular : your Cicero and mine is now apply- 
ing himself with great diligence to the instructions of Pseonius, 
a rhetorician, a man, in my opinion, well accomplished, and 
of excellent character; but you know well enough that my 
own style of education is a little more learned and philo- 
sophical. Though, therefore, I do not wish Cicero's progress, 
and that course of instruction, to be impeded ; and the boy 
himself seems to be greatly charmed and delighted with the 
exercise in declamation ; (and as I was myself also practised 
in it, I would allow him to go on in my steps, for I feel sure 
that he will arrive at the same end,) but still, if I take him 
anywhere into the country with me, I shall lead him into 
my own method and practice. For a great reward is offered 
me from you, which certainly I shall not fail to gain through 
my own fault. In what parts you are going to winter, and 
with what expectations, I should wish you to write me word 
with all possible minuteness. Farewell. 



LETTER IV. 

Marcus Cicero to his brother Quintus, greeting. 

1. Gabinius has been acquitted. Altogether, nothing could 
be more childish than Lentulus, his accuser, and his fellow- 
prosecutors, nothing more corrupt than the bench ; but still, 
if the exertion and entreaties of Pompey had not been extra- 
ordinary, and if the report of a coming dictatorship had not 



TO HIS BROTHER QU1>;TUS. 79 

been full of alarm, he would not have made any reply even 
to Lentulus ; and yet with him for his accuser, and with that 
bench for his judges, he had thirty-two votes against him, 
seventy persons voting. Certainly, this trial is of so severe 
a character, that he seems likely to be convicted on the other 
accusations, and especially on that of peculation ; but you 
see that there is really no republic at all, no senate, no 
judges, no dignity in any one of us. 

Why should I say more about the judges ? Two men of prae- 
torian rank were on the bench ; Domitius Calvinus ; he voted 
openly for his acquittal, so that all might see it; and Cato;^ 
he, after the votes had been counted, withdrew himself from the 
circle, and was the first to announce the result to Pompey. 

2. Some say, and Sallust among them, that I ought to have 
been the accuser. Should I trust myself to such judges ? 
What would have been thought of me if he had escaped 
while I had pleaded against him ? But other considerations 
influenced me. Pompey would have thought that he had 
a dispute with me, not about the safety of Gabinius, but his 
own dignity. He would have entered the city. The matter 
would have come to a regular quarrel ; I should have seemed 
like Pacideianus when matched with ^serninus the Samnite; 
perhaps he would have bitten off my ear. He would at least 
have been reconciled to Clodius. With my own conduct 
certainly, I am thoroughly satisfied, particularly if you do 
not disapprove of it. He, after he had been honoured by me 
with eminent exertions on my part, and though I owed him 
nothing, and he owed everything to me, was still unable to 
bear my differing in opinion with him about the affairs of the 
commonwealth, (I will not use a harsher expression ;) and 
even at the period when he was less powerful, he showed how 
much he could do against me when I was at the height of 
my reputation. Isow, when I myself am not even anxious to 
acquire any great influence, when the republic itself has cer- 
tainly no power at all, and when he has power over everything, 
could I possibly contend with him '? For so I must have 
done. I do not believe that you think that I ought tq have 
undertaken such a task. 

3. [You should,] Sallust still argues, [have done] one of 

^ What Cat©, is Tincertain ; but it was not, as Paul Manutius observes, 
the Cato afterwards called Uticensis. 



80 Cicero's letters 

two things ; [if you did not accuse him,] you should have 
defended him, and have granted that to the entreaty of 
Pompey : for indeed he did entreat very earnestly. A plea- 
sant friend certainly Sallust is, who thinks that I was bound 
either to incur a most dangerous enmity or everlasting 
infamy. But I myself am pleased with this middle course ; 
and it is gratifying to me, that after I had with great serious- 
ness given my evidence in accordance with good faith and 
religion, the defendant said, that if he could possibly have 
been in the city, he would have satisfied me ; ^ nor did he put 
a single question to me. 

4. With respect to the verses which you wish me to write 
out for you, the task cannot be undertaken by me, a task 
which requires not only time, but also a mind free from all 
care. But enthusiasm is also wanting, for I am not altogether 
without anxiety as to the coming year, though I am without 
apprehension. And at the same time (I assure you that I 
speak without the slightest irony) I assign a higher place in 
that kind of writing to you than to myself 

5. As to completing your Greek library, changing some 
books, and procuring some Latin ones, I wish indeed that those 
matters may be done, especially as they have reference to my 
accommodation. But I myself have no person by whose 
agency I can get such things done for me; for the books 
which have attractions for me are not for sale, and cannot be 
completed except by a man who is both skilful and diligent : 
however, I will give Chrysippus a commission, and I will 
speak with Tyrannio. I will inquire too, what Scipio has 
done about the money. Whatever seems proper, I will attend 
to it. As to Ascanio, you shall do whatever you please ; I 
will interpose no obstacle on my own account. I commend 
you for not being in a hurry about your suburban villa, but 
I advise you to have one. 

6. I have written this on the 24th of October, the 
day on which the games were beginning, as I was going 
to my Tusculan villa, and taking my Cicero with me for a 
game 2- of instruction, not of amusement ; on that account 

1 Would have thanked me, for not having been his accuser, but 
having merely given testimony against him. — Paul Manutius. 

2 In ludum discendi, non lusionis. He plays on the word ludus, which 
he had used just before; ludi committebantur 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 81 

[ did not go further than I wanted, because I desired to be 
present at the triumph of Pomptinius/ on the 3d of Novem- 
ber ; for there will be I know not what trifle of business ; 
since Cato and Servilius, the praetors, threaten that they will 
prevent it; and I do not know what they can do, as he will 
both have Appius the consul with him, and the majority of 
the praetors, and the tribunes of the people. However, they 
so threaten, and especially Quintus Scaevola, who breathes 
nothing but war. My kindest and dearest brother, take care 
of your health. 



LETTERS y. VI. 

Marcus Cicero to his brother Quintus, greeting, 

1. With respect to your question, what I have done about 
those books which, when I was in the neighbourhood of 
Cumse, I began to write, I have not been idle, nor am I idle ; 
but I have several times changed my whole plan and method 
of treating the subject : for after two books were completed, 
in which, during that nine days' festival which took place in 
the consulship of Tuditauus and Aquilius, a conversation is 
commenced by me between Africanus,^ a little before his 
death, and Lselius, Philus, Manilius, Quintus Tubero, and 
Fannius and Sceevola, the sons-in-law of Laelius ; and that 
conversation is extended over nine days, and through nine 
books, being on the best form of government, and the charac- 
ter of the best citizen, (the work in truth was put together 
with sufficient clearness, and the dignity of the speakers added 
some weight to the arguments ;) — when these books were read 
by me at my Tusculan villa in the hearing of Sallust, I was 
assured by him that opinions might be given on those sub- 
jects with much greater authority, if I myself were to speak 
on the republic, especially as I was not a Heraclides of Pon- 
tus, but a man of consular rank, and one who had myself been 
concerned in the most important affairs of state; but that 
what I attributed to characters of such antiquity, would 
appear to be fictitious; that as to the dialogue upon oratory 

^ Over the Allobroges. 

^ That is, the younger Africanus. The book alluded to is the treatisa 
De Republic^,, discovered in this, century. 

G 



82 CICERO'S LETTERS 

in those treatises of mine, I bad done well not to utter in m}^ 
own character what was said on the art of speaking, but to 
refer it to those men whom I had seen myself; but that 
Aristotle himself delivers in his own character what he writes 
about the commonwealth, and the most excellent kind of 
citizen. 

2. He made an impression upon me, and so much the 
more because, [by the plan that I had adopted,] I was unable 
to touch upon the greatest disturbances in our commonwealth, 
inasmuch as they were posterior to the age of the speakers ; 
though at first I had made this very thing one of my objects, 
lest in touching on our own times, I should give offence to any 
one. Now I shall both avoid that, and shall myself converse 
with you ; but, nevertheless, if I come to Rome, I shall send 
you what I had originally written ; for I imagine that you 
will be of opinion, that those books were not put aside by 
me without some feeling of disappointment. 

3. I am exceedingly gratified by Caesar's great good-will, of 
which he has assured me in his letter : but I do not depend 
much on the promises which he holds out. I am neither 
eager for honours nor anxious for glory; and I am more 
desirous of the duration of his good- will, than the fulfilment 
of his promises. Nevertheless, I live amidst the same ambi- 
tion and labour, as if I were expecting what I never solicit. 

4. As to what you ask me about making verses, it is in- 
credible, my dear brother, how much I want time; nor indeed 
am I sufficiently animated in thought to sing of those things 
which you wish. And do you, who have surpassed all men 
in that description of language and expression, ask me for 
suggestions on a subject which I cannot fully grasp even with 
the utmost exertion of thought 1 Nevertheless, I would do 
it as well as I could, but, (what by no means escapes your 
knowledge,) there is need, for composing a poem, of a certain 
cheerfulness of spirit, which the times altogether take away 
from me. I indeed free myself, as far as I can, from all 
anxiety on account of the commonwealth, and devote myself 
to literature; but still I will tell you what in truth I wished 
above all things concealed from you : I am made wretched, 
my dearest brother, I am made wretched by the consideration 
that there is no commonwealth ; no courts of justice ; and that 
this present time of life of mine, which ought to be in full 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 83 

possession of the authority of a senator, is either harassed 
with the labour of pleading in the forum, or endured with 
the aid of private literary pursuits ; and that the idea which 
I cherished from my childhood, 

At all times to excel, and be above 

My fellows, 

is all come to nothing ; that of my enemies, some are not 
attacked by me, some are even defended ; that not only my 
inclinations, but my very dislikes are not free ; and that 
Csesar is the only one of all men who is found to love me as 
much as I desire ; or even, as some think, is the only one who 
is inclined to love me. 

Yet none of these vexations are of such a nature that 

' I cannot every day soothe myself with great consolation ; but 

the greatest consolation of all will be if we shall be together 

again; but, at present, to those other disquietudes of mine, 

there is added even the most vehement longing to see you. 

5. If, as Pansa thinks that I ought to have done, I had 
defended Gabinius, I should have been utterly ruined; those 
who hate him, and they are all ranks of men, would have 
begun to hate me, on account of him whom they already 
hate. I bore myself, in my opinion, admirably, so as to do 
only so much as every one might see. And in the whole of 
my conduct, as you advise me, I devote myself greatly to the 
cultivation of ease and tranquillity. 

6. In respect of the library, it is Tyrannio who is the 
idler. I will speak to Chrysippus; but it is a troublesome 

I task, and one that requires a very diligent man. I find this 
j myself, who, with a great deal of trouble, meet with no suc- 
j cess. But for Latin books, I know not whither to turn my- 
j self; so faultily are they copied, and so dishonestly are they 
I sold ; however, I will not neglect to do what may be done. 
I Crebrius, as I wrote you word before, is at Rome, and the 
, aien who take their oaths to anything, tell me that he is under 
' ^eat obligations to you. I fancy that the money matters have 
j oeen settled in my absence. 

7. When you say that you have finished four tragedies in 
sixteen days, are you borrowing anything from any one else ? 
And are you aiming at credit ^ by copying out the Electra 
)v the Troades ? Do not be an idler; and do not fancy that 

' Most texts have xP^^s : Gronovius and some others prefer kK4os. 

g2 



84 CICERO'S LETTERS 

the saying yi/w^i aeavTov is intended merely to diminish 
arrogance, but that it also intimates that we should know 
our own powers. However, I would wish you to send me 
both them, and the Erigona. You have in this packet my 
last two letters. 



LETTER YII. 

Marcus Cicero to his brother Quintus, greeting. 

1. There is a wonderful flood at Rome, and especially 
along the Appian road, as far as the temple of Mars; the 
walks of Crassipes, and his gardens, have been carried away, 
and many shops. There has been an amazing quantity of 
water down as far as the public fish-ponds. The passage of 
Homer ^ is powerfully illustrated : — 

As on an autumn day, when Jupiter 

Pours violent waters forth, whene'er, enraged, 

His anger burns 'gainst men : 

For it applies well to the acquittal of Gabinius : — 

Men who by force in council will pronounce 
Judgments unjust, and banish right, the voice 
Of heav'n not heeding. 

But I have made up my mind not to trouble myself about 
these matters. 

2. When I arrive at Rome, I will write you word what 
I observe, and especially about the dictatorship; and I will 
give the courier letters, both for Labienus and for Ligurius. 

I wrote this before daybreak, by the light of a little wooden 
candlestick, which was very acceptable to me, because they 
said that you, when you were at Samos, had had it made. 
Farewell, my most affectionate and most excellent brother. 



LETTER VIII. 
Marcus to his brother Quintus, greeting. 

1. There is no need for me to reply to your former letter, 

which is full of discontent and complaints; of which kind 

too you say that you had given Labienus another the day 

before ; but he has not arrived yet. For your more recent 

1 II. xvi. 386. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 85 

letter has removed from me every feeling of annoyance ; only 
I both advise and entreat you, to recollect amid all those 
annoyances and labours and feelings of regret, what our 
intention was in your journey. For we were not aiming at 
any trifling or ordinary advantages ; for what advantage could 
there have been which we should have thought worth pur- 
chasing at the price of our separation ? We were seeking 
most powerful protection, for the full maintenance of our 
dignity, from the good-will of a most excellent and most 
influential man. More is risked on hope than on money; 
everything else will go ^ to loss. If, therefore, you often turn 
back your thoughts to the consideration of our old objects 
and hopes, you will more easily bear those hardships of 
military service, and other things which annoy you; and 
still you will be able to shake them ofi" when you please. 
But the full time for that matter has not arrived yet, though 
it is approaching. 

2. Moreover, I recommend you not to trust anything to 
your letters, from which, if it should be divulged, we should 
suffer annoyance. There are many things of which I had 
rather be ignorant than be informed of them at any risk. 
I will write to you further with a mind at ease, when my 
Cicero is going on well again, as I hope he will. I would 
wish you to take care and let me know to whom I must give 
the letter which I am to send you next ; whether to the 
couriers of Caesar, that he may at once send them on to you, 
or to those of Labienus ; for where those Nervii ^ are, or how 
far off they are, I know not. 

3. I derived great pleasure from your letter concerning the 
virtue and gravity of Caesar, which he had displayed when 
under deep affliction. And as to your requesting me to 
finish the poem which I have begun to him, although I am 
distracted with labour, and still more in mind, still, since 
Caesar has learned from the letter which I had sent to you, 
that I have begun something, I will resume what I had 
commenced, and complete it in these idle days of supplica- 
tions ; during which I am extremely glad that our friend 

^ Struentur is the reading of OrelHus and most other editors ; Nobbe 
has struantur. 

2 The Nervii in Gaul, among whom Quintus was in winter quarters 
with his legion. Cses. B. G. v. — Paul Manutius. 



86 CICERO S LETTERS 

Messala and the rest are relieved from annoyance, and when you 
set him down as quite sure to be consul with Domitius, you do 
not in the least dissent from my own opinion. I will under- 
take for Messala's conduct to Caesar; but Memmius places 
hopes in the arrival of Caesar, in which I think he is mis- 
taken ; here at least he is coldly regarded : as for Scaurus, 
Pompey cast him off some time ago. 

4. Matters are postponed ; the comitia are brought to an 
interregnum. The rumour of a dictator is disagreeable to the 
well-affected; but what they say is far more disagreeable to 
me. However, the whole business is regarded with alarm, 
and goes on slowly. Pompey plainly denies that he has any 
inclination for it. Before he did not use to deny it to me. 
Hirrus seems likely to propose it. ye gods, what a fool of 
a man ! how does he love himself without a rival ! He 
frightened off, by my means, Crassus Junianus,^ a man wholly 
devoted to me. It is very hard to know whether he wishes it, 
or whether he does not. However, while Hirrus is acting, he 
will not make people believe that he has any disinclination. 
People at this time were talking of nothing else with regard 
to public affairs ; at all events, nothing else is done. 

5. The funeral of Serranus Domesticus the son, was a very 
mournful one : it took place on the 19th of November. The 
father spoke a funeral panegyric over him, of my writing. 

6. Now as to Milo : Pompey has given nothing to him, 
and everything to Gutta; and says that he will take care 
that Caesar shall use all his endeavours to further his interest. 
Milo is apprehensive of this, — and not without reason, — and 
almost despairs, if he becomes dictator. If he with any armed 
force, or with his protection, should assist any one who inter- 
posed a veto to his dictatorship, he fears Pompey would be 
his enemy; and if he does not assist some one, then he is 
afraid that matters will be carried by violence. He is pre- 
paring the most magnificent games,^ of such a character that 
no man has ever exhibited any more costly ones; a double 
and a treble piece of folly, as they are not demanded,^ — either 
because he had already exhibited a very fine show, or because 

^ The name is probably corrupt. 

2 In honour of the dead, by whose will he had received a bequest. 
— Paul Manutius. 

2 By the people. See Ep. ad Fam. ix. 8. — Idem, 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 87 

means were wanting, or because he was a director/ or because 
he might fairly look upon himself as a director, and not as 
an sedile.^ I have now written nearly all that I had to say. 
My dearest brother, take care of your health. 



LETTER IX. 

Marcus to Ms hr other Quintus, greeting, 

1. In the matter of Gabinius, none of those things which 
were most affectionately imagined by you, were necessary to 
be done: 

Then may the wide-mouthed earth, with ample yawn, 
Swallow me quick. 

I acted with the most consummate dignity, as all men are of 
opinion, and also with the greatest lenity, in all the steps 
which I took : I neither pressed him hard, nor relieved him. 
I was a very strong witness ; in other respects I was quiet. 
The disgraceful and ruinous result of the trial I took very 
easily; and my prudence indeed now redounds to my ad- 
vantage; so that I am not in the least moved by these 
calamities of the commonwealth, and the licentiousness of 
audacious citizens, with which I used to be distracted ; for 
nothing can be more utterly lost than these men and these 
times. 

2. Since, therefore, no pleasure can now be derived from 
public affairs, I do not know why I should vex myself. 
Literature, my studies, and leisure, my country-houses, and 
especially our boys, give me great pleasure. Milo is the only 
one that gives me annoyance ; but I wish that the consulship 
may put an end to it ; in regard to which I will use no less 
exertions than I used about my own ; and you, from where 
you are, will be able to help me, as indeed you do. Concerning 

^ Magister. A director or trustee to see the property divided among 
the legatees. — Idem. 

2 Cicero's meaning is, that to exhibit games was the part of aediles, 
not of magistrif directors or trustees, and that Milo, therefore, as ha 
was only a magister, and not an sedile, ought to have forborne fronj 
exhibiting games. — Idem. 



88 Cicero's letters 

that matter, the other points, unless violence breaks them off, 
are going on well. For his estate I am in fear : 

But the man rages beyond all endurance, 

and is preparing games which are to cost a hundred thousand 
pounds.^ But in this one particular I will bear with his in- 
considerateness as well as I can ; and it is for your firmness 
to be able to bear it. 

3. With respect to the commotions of the coming year, I 
had wished you to understand that there is no cause for 
domestic apprehension, but only for the common condition of 
the republic, about which, if I am not able to effect any good, 
I am still unable to be wholly indifferent. But how cautious 
I wish you to be in writing, you may conjecture from this, 
that I do not even write to you any account of the disturb- 
ances which are openly made in the republic, lest my letters, 
being intercepted, should hurt any one's feelings. I there- 
fore would have you free from domestic anxiety. As to the 
interests of the commonwealth, I know how anxious you 
always are about them. 

1 see that our friend Messala is consul ; if by the interven- 
tion of the interrex, without any proper decision ; if by the 
dictator's ^ influence, still without danger j he has no unpopu- 
larity to contend with. The ardour of Hortensius will have 
great influence : the acquittal of Gabinius is looked on as the 
promulgation of a law of impunity. By the bye, there has 
not been anything done yet about a dictator. 

Pompey is away ; Appius disturbs everything ; Hirrus is 
preparing to act. Many people are counted ready to inter- 
pose their veto. The people does not care ; the chiefs are 
adverse; I take no part. 

4. I am greatly obliged to you for the promises which you 
make about the slaves, and I am, as you write word, but very 
poorly attended both in Eome and in the country ; but take 
care of troubling yourself, I intreat you, about anything which 
regards my convenience, unless it is entirely convenient to 
you, and quite within your power. 

^ Copies vary as to this sum. Most of them have hsccc ; which has 
been generally thought corrupt. 

2 Per dictatorem. An allusion to Pompey, whom a party wished to 
make dictator. 



TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. 89 

5. I laughed at Yatinius's letter j but I am well aware that 
I am observed by him in such a manner, that I must not 
only swallow his existing hatred, but even digest [and put 
up with] it. 

6. As to the work which you exhort me to finish, I have 
finished a very pleasant epic poem, (as it appears to me,) to 
Caesar ; but I want a trustworthy courier, lest that should 
happen which happened to your Erigona, for which alone, 
since Caesar has had the command, the road out of Gaul has 
not been safe. 

7. * * * Well? if I have not good mortar, 
ought I to pull down the house? which indeed pleases me 
more and more every day ; and, above all, the lower portico ; 
and the rooms out of it are admirably made. As to Arcanum, 
that is a work of Caesar himself, or indeed of some still neater 
workman : for those images, and that palaestra, and fish-pond, 
and stream, is the work of many Philotimi, not Diphili. But 
I will myself go there, and send orders, and give directions. 

8. You would complain still more of the will of Felix, if you 
knew the truth ; for the documents which he thought that 
he was signing, in which he had laid down strict directions as 
to the division of his property, he did not sign ; (he mistook 
partly though his own blunder, and partly through that of 
his slave, Sicuras;) and he signed documents which he did 
not intend to sign. But let him bemoan himself. Let us 
take care of ourselves. 

9. I love your Cicero as you beg me, and as he deserves, 
and as I ought ; but I do not keep him always with me, both 
that I may not withdraw him from his teachers, and because 
his mother Porcia is away, without whom I am afraid of the 
boy's appetite ; but still we are a great deal together. I have 
now replied to everything in your letter, my most affectionate 
and most excellent brother. Fare you well. 



90 Cicero's letters to brutus. 



CICERO'S LETTERS TO BRUTUS, 



INTRODUCTION. 

The genuineness of this volume has been very commonly doubted; 
but that question is one on which it seems now hardly worth while 
to enter. 

The first of these Letters was written in the year of Caesar's murder, 
710 A.U.C., in the consulship of Antonius and Dolabella, who seized 
that office on the death of Caesar, which he himself had previously 
promised to resign to him. 

Cicero, though he had not been privy to the conspiracy, yet as soon as 
the deed was done, ranged himself on the side of the conspirators, 
as being the only party with sufficient power to secure order. In 
a few days, however, they negotiated with Antony, and he, desirous 
to grasp the power which had been possessed by Caesar, procured 
them distant provinces, some of which had been previously assigned 
to them by Caesar. Brutus was to have Macedonia ; Cassius, Syria ; 
and Decimus Brutus, Cisalpine Gaul. Soon afterwards Octavius re- 
turned to Italy, arriving at Naples in the middle of April, where he 
had an interview with Cicero ; and before the end of the month, he 
arrived in Rome. Brutus and Cassius had already become unpopular 
in the city, and retreated to Lavinium ; and Antony now began to 
show his hostility to their party, forbidding Decimus Brutus to go 
to his province, and prevailing on the senate to transfer Macedonia 
and Syria from Marcus Brutus and Cassius to himself and Dolabella, 
while they were to have, instead, the charge of supplying the city 
with grain. The day after this vote was passed, (June 6,) Cicero had 
an interview with Brutus and Cassius at Antium, where nothing was 
decided on. As the city-praeix)r, Brutus ought to have exhibited the 
Ludi Apollinares ; but he was afraid to return to the city, which 
indeed even Cicero did not think that he could do with safety. He 
retired to the neighbourhood of Baiae, while his colleague presided 
. over the games, which were celebrated at his expense, and with great 
magnificence. The conspirators were a little encouraged by news of 
some advantages which Sextus Pompey had gained in Spain, though 
he did not belong to their party; but he, in consequence, and 
learning that Lepidus was raising an army to attack him, proposed 
a general disarming of all parties. 

Cicero himself was absent from Rome, visiting different places on the 
coast, during the summer. Antony reconciled himself to Antonius, 
and by his aid prevailed on the senate to allow him to resign Mace- 
donia to his brother Caius, and to give him Decimus Brutus's 
province of Cisalpine Gaul. Brutus and Cassius, as praetors, had no 
right to be absent from the city without leave ; but they obtained it 



CICERO TO BRUTUS. 91 

from the senate, and subsequently quitted Italy for the East, with 
the resolution to endeavour to make themselves masters by force of 
the provinces v/hich had been originally assigned to them, and of 
which they had now been deprived. Cicero sailed from Italy, and 
went to Syracuse, intending to proceed to Athens ; but the wind 
being unfavourable, he was driven back to Italy. He returned to 
Rome on the last day of August, where he was received with accla- 
mations by all parties ; but as he refused to appear the next day in 
the senate, Antony was offended, and attacked him: and the day 
afterwards Cicero delivered his first Philippic. Antony and Octavius 
quarrel : Antony leaves Rome for Brundusium, to take the command 
of the legions assembled there ; and Octavius visits the colonies in 
Campania, and then Ravenna, and the towns between Rome and the 
frontiers of Gaul. Cicero supports Octavius. Antony returns to 
Rome, and again leaves it, and goes northward to attack Decimus 
Brutus, who throws himself into Mutina. The consuls-elect for the 
ensuing year were Hirtius and Pansa. 

LETTER I. 

Cicero to Brutus, greeting. 

Lucius Clodius,^ tribune of the people elect, has a very great 
liking for me ; or, that I may use a more emphatic expression, 
has a very great love for me ; and as I am quite certain of 
that, I have no doubt that you (for you know my disposition 
thoroughly) will suppose that he also is beloved by me : for 
nothing appears to me to be less becoming to a man, than 
not to respond in attachment to those by whom you are in- 
vited to it. 

He appeared to me to suspect, (and not indeed, without 
great concern,) that something has been reported to you by 
his enemies, or rather through the agency of his enemies, by 
which your affection has been alienated from him. It is 
not my custom, my dear Brutus, (and this I think you know,) 
to say anything rashly about another; for it is dangerous, 
on account of the secret nature of men's wishes, and the 
variety of their characters. But I have thoroughly examined 
and understood and appreciated the disposition of Clodius : 
there are many indications of it, but not necessary to be 
written ; for I wish you to look upon this rather as a testi- 
monial than as a letter. He was promoted by the favour of 
Antony, and a great portion of that very favour is owing to 
you; and therefore, as long as it did not interfere with our 
^ Nothing more is known of this Clodius. 



92 BRUTUS TO CICERO,. 

safety, he would be glad to see him safe. But he is aware 
that matters have been brought into such a state, (for he is, 
as you are aware, by no means deficient in acuteness,) that 
both cannot be safe : and therefore he prefers that we should 
be so. And of you yourself he speaks and feels with the 
greatest friendliness : so that if any one has written you a 
different account of him, or has sought to give you a different 
impression in conversation, I beg of you over and over again 
rather to believe me, who am both able to judge of him more 
easily than any obscure informer, and am more sincerely at- 
tached to you : think therefore that Clodius is most friendly 
to you, and that he is such a citizen as a man of the greatest 
prudence and of the most affluent fortune ought to be. 



LETTER IT. 

Brutus to Cicero, greeting. 

I HAVE been earnestly expecting your letter, which you 
wrote after you received the news of the state of our affairs, 
and of the death of Trebonius ; ^ for I have no doubt that you 
fully explain your views to me. By a most shameful atrocity, 
we have lost a most excellent citizen, and have been expelled 
from the possession of the province, which it is easy to 
recover; nor will it be less disgraceful or iniquitous that it 
should not be recovered, if it be possible. Antony^ is as yet 
with us ; but, I assure you, I am both moved by the entreaties 
of the man, and I am afraid that the madness of some parties 
may fall upon him. I am altogether in perplexity. But if I 
knew what you thought best, I should be free from anxiety, 

^ This was the first blood shed by either party after the death of 
Csesar. Trebonius had been assigned the province of Asia Minor, and 
had taken possession of it ; but Dolabella proceeded through Asia 
Minor, to take possession of Syria, where Cassius was already in arms. 
Trebonius did not dare openly to defy him ; but the gates of the dif- 
ferent cities were closed against him. He attacked Smyrna, in which 
Trebonius himself was, scaled the walls by night, seized him in his bed, 
and beheaded him ; while the soldiers mutilated the body, and tearing 
down the head from Dolabella's tribune, kicked it about the streets, till 
the features could no longer be recognised. This occurred about the 
end of February 711 A.u.C. 

2 Caius Antony, who was a prisoner. 



I 



BRUTUS TO CICERO. 93 

for I should feel sure that that really was the best. As 
soon as possible, therefore, make roe acquainted with your 
opinions. 

Our friend Cassius has S}T:ia, and the Syrian legions ; having 
been invited spontaneously by Murcus and Martins, and by 
the troops themselves. I have written to my sister Tertia, 
and to my mother, not to spread any account of this most 
admirable and fortunate exploit of Cassius, till they knew 
your opinion, and till you thought it desirable to do so. 

I have read your two speeches; of which you spoke on-e 
on the 1st of January, and the other was in reply to Calenus, 
on the subject of my letters. You now doubtless expect me 
to praise them : I know not whether the merit of courage or 
of ability displayed in them be the greater. I now grant that 
they may be called Philippics, as you wrote, jestingly, in one 
of your letters. We are in need of two things, my dear 
Cicero ; money, and reinforcements ; one of which may be 
hastened by you, I mean that some portion of the troops 
jfrom Italy may be sent to us, either secretly, and in spite of 
Pansa, or else by an open motion in the senate ; the other 
thing, money, which is still more necessary, not more for my 
troops than those of the other commanders, * * 

On this account I am the more concerned that we have lost 
Asia; which I hear is oppressed to such a degree by Dolabella, 
that the murder of Trebonius no longer appears his most 
barbarous action. Yetus Antistius, however, has aided me 
with money. 

Your son Cicero endears himself to me so greatly by his 
industry, patience, diligence, and magnanimity, — in short, by 
the performance of every kind of duty, that he seems never 
for a moment to forget whose son he is. Though, therefore, 
I cannot make you love him more than you do, since he is 
already most dear to you; at least allow so much weight to 
my opinion, as to feel sure that he will not have to appropriate 
any of your glory, in order to arrive at honours similar to 
those of his father. 

Dyrrhachium, the 1st of April.^ 

^ These letters are differently arranged in different editions. I have 
followed the arrangement of Middleton as most consistent with the 
historical order of the events alluded to ; but the letters of Brutus are 
just as spurious as those attributed to Cicero. It may save trouhJe 



94: 



CICERO TO BRUTUS. 



LETTER III. 
Cicero to Brutus, greeting. 

You have been able to learn the admirable disposition of 
Plancus for the good of the commonwealth, and the number 
of his legions and auxiliary troops, and, in short, of his whole 
force, from his letters, of which I suppose that a copy has 
been sent to yoa. I imagine too, that from the letters of 
your own friends, you have arrived at a complete understand- 
ing of the levity and inconsistency of your friend Lepidus, 

to give the arrangement of the different editions, — that adopted by 
Middleton, and the ordinary arrangement, which divides these Letters 
into two books : — 



FIRST WORDS. 


MIDDLETON. 


ORDINARY EDITION. 


Lucius Clodius . , 


L . . Book 


L 1. 


Literas tuas . . . 


IL . . 




IL 5. 


Planci animum . . 


in. . 




IL 2. 


Datis mane . . . 


IV. . 




IL 4. 


Quae liter89 . . . 


V. . 




IL 7. 


Veteris Antistii . . 


VL . 




L 11. 


Multos tibi . . . 


VIL . 




L 8. 


Cum hsec scribebam 


vin. . 




IL 1. 


Nostree res . . . 


IX. . 




I. 3. 


A. d. V. Calendas . 


X. . 




I. 5. 


Quanta sim Isetitia 


XL . 




L 4. 


Lucius Bibulus . . 


xn. . 




L 7. 


Noh expectare . . 


XIIL . 




L 6. 


Scripta et obsignate 


XIV. . 




I. 2. 


Scribis mihi . . . 


XV. . 




L17. 


Fungerer 


XVI. . 




L 9. 


Etsi daturus . . . 


XVIL . 




L 12. 


De Marco Lepido . 


XVIII. . 




L 13. 


Nullas adhuc . . . 


XIX . . 




I. 10. 


Breves tuse . . . . 


XX. . , 




1.14. 


Messalam habes . 


XXI. . . 




L15. 


Particulam literarum 


XXIL . 




L16. 


Cum ssepe te . . 


XXIIL . 




L18. 


Si per tuas . . . 


XXIV. . . 




IL 8. 


There is also one given in 


the ordinary editions 


as a fragment of 


a separate letter ; but printed 


by Middleton as the end of Letter IL 


and one beginning " Quod egei 


e," which Middleton considers a portion 


of Letter IV., but which I hav 


3 followed the ordinary 


edition in giving 


is a separate letter, and which v 


dll be found as Letter IV. Letter XXlV. 


M'iddleton himself gives up as 


a forgery. 







CICERO TO BRUTUS. 05 

(who, next to his own brother, hates his relations above all 
people,) and his invariably hostile feelings towards the com- 
monwealth. My expectation disquiets me, the fulfilment of 
which is wholly reduced to an extremely critical state ; for all 
my hopes depend on the delivery of Brutus, for whom I was 
in a state of great alarm. 

At present, I have sufficient difficulty here, with that mad- 
man Servilius, with whom I have borne longer than my 
dignity fairly allowed ; but I did bear with him for the sake 
of the republic, that I might not give the profligate portion 
of the citizens a man, not indeed of great wisdom, but of 
noble birth, to whom they might flock as a leader— which, 
nevertheless, they do. But I did not think it right that he 
should be alienated from the republic. However, I have done 
with enduring him now, for he had begun to show such inso-, 
lence, that he looked upon no one as free. In the case of 
Plancus, he burst forth with incredible indignation, and con- 
tended with me in such a spirit for two days, and was so 
completely beaten by me, that I hope that he will be more 
modest hereafter. And while this very contest was going 
on, at the time when the debate was proceeding with the 
greatest vehemence, on the 9 th of April, a letter w^as deli- 
vered to me in the senate, from our friend Lentulus, with an 
account of Cassius and his legions, and Syria; and as soon 
as I had read it aloud, Servilius lost heart, as well as many 
others, for there are several other persons of high rank who 
are thoroughly disaffected : but Servilius was exceedingly 
indignant that assent was expressed to my opinion about 
Plancus. He is a great monster in regard to the common- 
wealth, but * * :t: 



LETTER lY. 
Cicero to Brutus, greeting. 

As to your remark that you are in need of two necessary 
things, reinforcements and money, it is very difficult to know 
what advice to give you ; for no means occur to my recol- 
lection, which I consider that you can use, except those which 
the senate has voted, giving you the powei of borrowing 
money from the difl'erent cities. But about the reinforce- 



Of) CICERO TO BRUTUS. 

meiit, I do not see what can be done ; for so far is Pan^^a 
from being able to afford you any portion of his army, or 
of his new levies, that he is even greatly annoyed at so many 
volunteers going to you; in my opinion, because he thinks 
that for those affairs about which there is now a contention 
in Italy, no forces can be too great ; but as many people 
suspect, because he has no desire for you to become too strong. 
I, however, have no suspicion of this kind. 

With regard to what you say, that you have written to 
your sister Tertia, bidding her not to make public the things 
which have been done by Cassius, till I approved of it, I see 
that you were afraid of what there was good reason to fear, 
namely, that the disposition of Caesar's party (as parties have 
still distinctive appellations) would be greatly excited by the 
intelligence. But, before we received your letters, the affair 
was known and spread abroad; and, besides, your couriers 
had brought letters to many of your friends. The fact was 
therefore not to be suppressed, since, indeed, it could not be 
done; and if it could have been done, we should have thought 
it a matter not to be published, rather than wholly concealed. 
With respect to my Cicero, if there really is as much in him 
as you say in your letter, I am as glad as I ought to be; and 
if, because you love him, you make his merits so much the 
greater, I still rejoice extremely on that very account, that he 
is beloved by you. 

April 12th. 



LETTER V. 

Cicero to Brutus, greeting. 

After I had given Scaptius letters for you on the morning 
of the 11th of April, the same day I received one from you 
in the evening, dated on the 1st of April, from Dyrrhachium; 
and, therefore, w^hen on the next day I was informed by 
Scaptius that the men to whom he had given the letters the 
day before had not started, but were going to set off imme- 
diately, I scratched these few lines to you in the midst of the 
confusion of my morning levee. About Cassius I am delighted, 
and congratulate the republic on his success; I congra- 
tulate myself too, for having delivered my opinion in spite of 



CICEKO TO BEUTUS. 97 

the opposition and anger of Pansa, that Cassins should pur- 
sue Dolabella actively as an enemy; and I declared with 
great boldness that he was already carrying on that war with- 
out waiting for any decree of the senate from us. I also said 
about you what I thought at that time ought to be said. 

This speech of mine will be sent to you, since I see that you 
are pleased with my Philippics. 

As to my advice that you ask respecting Caius Antonius, 
I think that you ought to keep him prisoner till we know the 
result of the affairs of Brutus.^ From the letters which you 
have sent me, Dolabella seems to be oppressing Asia, and 
conducting himself most shamefully in that province; but 
you have written to several people that '' Dolabella has been 
shut out by the Ehodians." Now, if he has been to Rhodes, 
it seems to me that he must have left Asia; and if that 
be the case, I think that you ought to stay there ; but if 
he has once got possession of the place, then, believe me, you 
ought not, but should, as I think, pursue him into Asia. 
You seem to be likely to do nothing better at the present 
moment * * * 



LETTEE VL 

Cicero to Brutus, greeting, 

I CONCLUDE that your relations, to none of whom do I yield 

in attachment to you, have informed you what letter was 

read publicly in the senate on the 13th of April in your 

name, and at the same time in that of Antony. But it 

j was not necessary that we should all write about the same 

I things; what was necessary for me to write to you was, what 

i I thought of the entire conduct of this war, and what my 

deliberate opinion and sentiments were. My feeling, my 

dear Brutus, with respect to the republic in general, has 

I always been the same as your own; my plan of action in some 

I points, not indeed in all, may perhaps have been a little more 

i vigorous. You know that my opinion has always been, that 

I the republic should be delivered not only from the tyrant, but 

I also from the tyranny. You adopted more gentle notions. 

1 ^ Decimus Brutus. 

H 



i?^ CICERO TO BRUTUS. 

certainly, to your own immortal honom^; but which of the 
two plans was the better, we have felt with great grief, and 
still feel, to our great danger. On that recent occasion you 
referred everything to the object of ensuring peace, which 
could not be managed by mere speeches ; I directed all my 
aims to secure liberty, which indeed can have no existence 
without peace : and peace itself I thought could be best esta- 
blished by war and arms. 

Zeal was not wanting to those who cried for arms, but we 
repressed their impetuosity, and checked their ardour. In 
consequence, our affairs fell into such a state, that if some 
god had not inspired Caesar Octavianus with the feelings which 
animated him, we must have fallen into the power of that 
most abandoned and infamous man, Mark Antony, with whom 
you see how great and perilous a contest there is ; and there 
would have been none, if Antony had not been spared on 
that occasion. 1 

But T forbear to speak of those matters ; for the exploit 
then performed by you,^ an exploit ever memorable, and almost 
divine, precludes all blame ; and, indeed, it cannot be extolled 
with all the praise that it deserves. 

You have lately appeared of a grave countenance. You 
have collected by yourself, in a short time, an army, and 
troops, and a sufficient number of legions. ye immortal gods, 
what an announcement was that, what a letter ! how great 
was the joy of the senate ! how extreme the alacrity of the 
whole city ! I never saw anything extolled with such unani- 
mity. There had been some expectation about the remains 
of Antony's force, whom you had deprived of his cavalry and 
of the chief part of his legions ; but it came to such an end 
as we could have wished ; for your letter, which was read in 
the senate, shows the wisdom of the general, the valour of the 
soldiers, the industry of your friends, and among them of my 
Cicero. Had it seemed advisable to your friends that a 
motion should be made respecting your letter, and had it not 
arrived at a most turbulent time, after the departure of Pansa 
the consul, proper and deserved honours would have been 
decreed to the immortal gods on the occasion. 

Behold, on the 13th of April, early in the morning, your 
rapid courier, Pilus, arrives. What a man ! ye gods, how 

^ When Csesar was murdered. ^ rpj^^ assassination of Caesar. 



CICERO TO BRUTUS. 99 

grave ! how steady ! how well affected to the republic ! He 
brings two letters, one in your name, and one in that of 
Antony. He delivers them to Servilius the tribune of the 
people, Servilius gives them to Cornutus; they are read in 
the senate : " Antony the proconsul." There was great asto- 
nishment, just as if any one had read '^ Dolabella the 
emperor : " from whom, indeed, couriers had arrived, but no 
one like Pilus, bold enough to produce the letters, or deliver 
them to the magistrates. 

Your letter was read; it was short, indeed, but very 
mild towards Antony. The senate admired it greatly ; to me 
it was not quite clear what I ought to do. Should I pronounce 
it forged ? But what if you owned it ? Should I pronounce 
it genuine ? That was not for your honour.^ The day, there- 
fore, was suffered to pass in silence. 

But the next day, when conversation on the matter had 
become general, and when Pilus had given a great deal of 
apparent offence, a commencement was fairly made on my 
part. I said a good deal about the '^proconsul Antony." 
Sextius was not wanting to the cause; and afterwards he 
spoke to me, observing in how much danger he thought his 
son and mine would be, if they had taken up arms against a 
proconsul. You know the man; he did full justice to the 
argument. Others spoke too ; and our friend Labeo remarked 
that your seal was not affixed to the letter, or the date added, 
and that you had not written to your relations, as you used 
to do. By this he wished to prove that the letter was forged ; 
' and, if you wish to know more, did prove it. 

Now, my dear Brutus, you have to decide upon the whole 
plan of the war. I see that you are pleased with lenity, and 
think it of the greatest advantage. It is very honourable, but 
it is in a different situation of affairs, and at other seasons, 
that there is room for clemency. At present, my dear 
Brutus, what is the state of affairs ^ The hopes of the needy 
and profligate point to the destruction of the temples of the 
immortal gods ; nor, indeed, is anything else to be determined 
by this war, but whether we are to exist, or not. 

"Who is it that we are sparing, and what are we doing? 

^ For if Antony had been a legal proconsul, it must have been not 
oaly dishonourable, but criminal in Brutus, to act against him as an 
rti^smy.—Middleton. 

u2 



100 BRUTUS TO CICERO. 

Are we thinking of the safety of those, by whom, if they should 
be victorious, not a trace of us will be left 1 For what differ- 
ence is there between Dolabella and any one of the three 
Antonies ? If we spare any one of them, we shall have been 
too harsh with Dolabella. Although the state of affain 
themselves compelled the senate and people of Rome t( 
embrace such opinions as these, still it was only brought about 
in a very great degree by my prudence and authority. 

If you do not approve this course, I will defend the opinion 
which you may express, but shall not abandon my own. Men 
expect from you nothing careless on the one hand, or cruel 
on the other. Moderation in this matter is easy, by being 
strict to the leaders, but liberal to the common soldiers. 

I wish, my dear Brutus, that you would have my Cicerc 
with you as much as possible. He will find no better schoo 
of virtue than the contemplation and imitation of you. 

16th of April. 



LETTER VII. 
Brutus to Cicero, .greeting. 

Such are the feelings of Yetus Antistius towards the com- 
monwealth, that I do not doubt that he would have proved 
himself a most strenuous defender of the common liberty in 
reference to Csesar and Antony, if he could have found an 
opportunity ; for he who, when he encountered Dolabella in 
Achaia, furnished with infantry and cavalry, preferred to run 
any risk from the treachery of a bandit ready for everything, 
rather than seem either to have been compelled to give, or to 
have given willingly, any money to that most profligate and 
infamous person, has of his own accord promised us, and 
actually given, above sixteen thousand pounds^ out of his 
own funds ; and, what is much more valuable still, he has 
offered us himself, and united himself to us. 

I have endeavoured to persuade him to remain as general 
in the camp, and to aid in the defence of the republic ; but 
he considered that he ought to depart, since he had disbanded 

^ HSXX. Paul Manutius admonishes us that we must take this for 
vicies. centena.miUia nummilm, i.e. 2,000 sestertia, or, as Middleton gives 
it, 16,144?. 



CICERO TO BRUTUS. 101 

his army; but he promised to return to us immediately, 
accepting an appointment as lieutenant, unless the consuls 
should proceed to hold comitia for the election of prsetors. 
For I earnestly recommended him, as he was so well affected 
to the commonwealth, not to postpone offering himself as a 
candidate. His conduct ought to be acceptable to all, at 
least such as look upon this as the army of the republic ; and 
so much the more pleasing to you, as you defend our liberty 
with greater courage and glory, and as you will gain a greater 
accession of dignity, if that result for which we hope shall 
attend our counsels. 

Moreover, my dear Cicero, I beg of you most particularly, 
and as a friend may, to look favourably on Yetus, and to 
exert yourself to add to his honours ; since, although nothing 
can turn him aside from the path which he has chosen, yet 
he may be excited by your praises and kindness to adhere 
more vigorously and tenaciously to his resolution ; and this 
win very much oblige me. 



LETTER VIII. 

Cicero to Brutus, greeting, 

1 HAVE recommended many persons to you, and I must 
continue to recommend ; for every virtuous man and good 
citizen is guided chiefly by your judgment, and all men of 
courage are eager to exert their efforts and spirit in your 
service; nor is there any one who does not think that my 
interest and influence have great weight with you. But I 
recommend to you Caius Nasennius, a native of the municipal 
town of Suessa, in such a way that I cannot recommend any 
one with more sincerity. For in the Cretan war, he com- 
manded the eighth century of the Principes under Metellus, 
and, since that time, he has been occupied in his own family 
affairs. At present, being influenced both by the state of 
the republic and by your pre-eminent dignity, he would be 
glad to obtain some post by your means. 

I recommend to you, my dear Brutus, a brave man, a pru- 
dent man, and, if that be anything to the purpose, a wealthy 
man. It will give me great pleasure if you treat him in such 
a manner that he may thank me for your favour to him. 



102 CICERO TO BRUTUS. 



LETTER IX. 

Cicero to Brutus, greeting. 

At the time that I was writing this letter, matters were 
supposed to have been reduced to the last extremity; for 
melancholy letters and news arrived about our friend Brutus. 
They did not indeed very much disturb me, for I could by no 
means distrust the armies and generals whom we have ; 
yet I did not agree with the majority, for I had not a bad 
opinion of the fidelity of the consul-s, which was strongly 
suspected. I desired in some particulars more prudence and 
promptness ; and if they had exerted those qualities, we 
should have already reestablished the republic. 

For you are not ignorant how great is the importance 
of seasonableness in public affairs, and what a difference it 
makes, whether the same thing be determined, undertaken, 
or done, a little sooner or a little later. If everything that 
was voted with resolution in this tumult, had either been 
done on the day on which I delivered my opinion, and not 
postponed from day to day, or if, from the time when things 
were engaged to be done, they had not been still delayed and 
procrastinated, we should now have no war at all. 

I, my dear Brutus, have done everything for the republic 
that a man is bound to do, who has been placed in the rank 
in which I have been, by the deliberate judgment of the 
senate and people ; not merely those things, which indeed are 
all that are to be required of a man, good faith, vigilance, 
and attachment to my country; for those are duties which 
every man ought to practise ; but, by him who delivers his 
opinion on affairs of a state among the chief men of it, I 
think that prudence ought also to be exhibited; nor, when 
I have taken so much upon myself as to assume the helm 
of the state, do I think myself less liable to reproof if I have 
given any unprofitable advice to the senate, than I should 
be if I had given any that is treacherous. 

I am aware that a careful account is sent to you of what 
has been done, and what is going forward. But there is also 
something on my part of which I wish you to be informed, 
namely, that my mind is fixed on the war, and that I attend 



II 



CICERO TO BRUTUS. 103 

to no other object, unless perchance the advantage of the 
republic calls me to something else; and the chief part of 
my thoughts are directed towards Cassius and yourself. Pre- 
pare yourself, therefore, my dear Brutus, to understand, that 
if affairs turn out well at this crisis, it is by you that the 
republic must be improved ; or, if any miscarriage takes place, 
it is by you that the republic must be restored. 



LETTER X. 

Cicero to Brutus, greeting. 

Our affairs seemed to be in a better position ; for I know 
for a certainty that an account has been sent to you of 
what has taken place. The consuls have proved to be just 
such men as I often described them to you ; but the natural 
inclination of young Caesar for virtue is marvellous. I trust 
that when he is in the full possession of honours and influence, 
we may be able to guide and restrain him with as much ease 
as we have controlled him hitherto. No doubt that will be 
a more difficult task, but still we do not despair, for the 
young man feels altogether persuaded, chiefly by me, that it 
is through his means that we have been saved ; and, doubt- 
less, if he had not kept Antony away from the city, all would 
have been lost. 

But three or four days before this most fortunate event, 
the whole city, under the influence of some alarm, were 
running off with their wives and children to you ; but having 
by the 20th of April recovered their spirits, they were de- 
sirous rather that you should come hither, than that they 
should go to you. On that day, indeed, I reaped the greatest 
reward of all my great labours and long anxiety, if indeed 
there is any reward in solid and true glory ; for a concourse 
of as numerous a multitude as our city can contain flocked to 
my house ; by whom I was conducted as far as the Capitol, 
and then, with the utmost acclamations and applause, placed 
in the rostrum. There is no vanity in me, nor ought there 
to be any; but yet the unanimity, the avowed gratitude, and 
the congratulations of all ranks of men excite me, because it 
is glorious for me to be popular from having secured the 
welfare of the people. But I would rather that you should 



104 CICERO TO BRUTUS. 

hear of these things from others; and I would wish you 
to keep me informed, with the utmost care, of all your affairs 
and plans, and to beware lest your easiness of dealing with 
people may seem to resemble indifference. The senate feels, 
and the Roman people feel, that no enemies were ever more 
worthy of the last extremity of punishment, than those 
citizens who in this war have taken up arms against their 
country ; on whom I cry for vengeance, and whom I attack 
with every vote that I give, while all honest men approve of 
my conduct. 

How you ought to judge of this matter, is a question for 
your own prudence. My opinion is, that the cause of the 
three brothers is one and the same. We have lost two con- 
suls, honest men, indeed, but honest men merely. Hirtius, 
it is true, died in the hour of victory, after he had defeated 
the enemy, a few days before, in a great battle; for Pansa 
had retired from the field, after receiving some wounds under 
which he could not support himself. Brutus ^ is pursuing 
the remains of the enemy, and so is Csesar. All those who 
have adhered to the party of Mark Antony have been de- 
clared public enemies; and accordingly most men interpret 
that decree of the senate as affecting those whom you have 
in your hands, whether captured, or having surrendered. I 
myself, indeed, advanced nothing more severe when I was 
giving judgment on Caius Antonius by name, as I had settled 
my opinion, that the senate ought to learn his case from vou. 

22d of April. 



LETTER XL 

Cicero to Brutus, greeting. 

On the 22d of April, when opinions were given in the 
senate about the propriety of pursuing with war those who 
had been declared enemies, Servilius included Yentidius in 
the number, and added, that Cassius ought to pursue Dola- 
bella. Having expressed my agreement with him, I proposed 
further, that you also, if you thought it desirable, and for the 
advantage of the state, should pursue Dolabella with your 

I Decimus Brutus. 



CICERO TO BRUTUS. 105 

army ; but that, if you could not do so with any benefit to 
the state, or if you did not conceive that it would be for 
the public advantage, you should keep your army where it 
is. The senate could do nothing more honourable, than to 
leave it wholly to you to decide upon what appeared to you 
most beneficial for the commonwealth. 

My own opinion, indeed, is, that if Dolabella has any force, 
if he has a camp, or any ground on which to make a stand, 
it will be becoming your character and your dignity to pur- 
sue him. 

Of the forces of our friend Cassius we knew nothing, for 
no letters have come from him, nor was any news brought 
upon which we could rely as certain. But of how much 
importance it is that Dolabella should be crushed, you are 
certainly aware, not only that he may receive the punishment 
due to his atrocities, but that there may be no place to 
which the leaders of the rebels may betake themselves in 
their flight from Mutina. And that this was my opinion 
even before, you may call to mind from my former letters; 
although at that time there was a haven of refuge in your 
camp, and a resource for safety in your army; for which 
reason, now that we are delivered from our dangers, as I 
trust that we are, we ought the more to devote ourselves to 
the destruction of Dolabella. However, you will give a still 
more diligent consideration to these matters, and come to a 
wise determination respecting them. You will give us in- 
formation, if you please, how you decide, and what you are 
doing. 

I am very anxious to have my Cicero elected into your 
college,! and I certainly think that, in the comitia for the 
election of priests, a regard for the wishes of the absent mem- 
bers may be had; for such a thing has been done before ; 
since Cains Marius, when he was in Cappadocia, was made 
augur by the Domitian law: nor has any law prohibited such 
a thing from being done in future. 

Moreover, in the Julian law, which is the most recent law 
jn the subject of appointments to the priesthood, there is a 
clause in these words, " Who is present as a candidate, or to 
»vhom regard shall be had," which clearly shows that regard 

^ That is, of the Pontifices, or minor priests, in which there were 
several vacancies at this time. — See Letter XIY. MiddUton. 



106 BRUTUS TO CICERO. 

may be had to a person, even though he is not present. On 
this subject I have written to him to follow your advice, as in 
everything else. You must also determine what is to be done 
with respect to Domitius and to our friend Cato. But, though 
it may be lawful for regard to be had to a person in his 
absence, yet everything is easier to those who are on the spot. 
If you decide, however, that you must go into Asia, there will 
be no possibility of bringing our friends hither for the 
comitia. 

We certainly expected that if Pansa had been alive, every- 
thing would have been sooner settled ; for he would at once have 
chosen himself a colleague, [in the room of Hirtius,] and then 
the comitia for the election of priests would have taken place 
before those for the election of praetors ; but now I foresee a 
great deal of delay by means of the auspices; for, while there 
shall be one patrician magistrate, the auspices cannot lapse 
into the hands of the senators. Certainly affairs are in a state 
of great confusion. I should wish you to put me in posses- 
sion of your sentiments on the whole matter. — The 5th of 
May. Farewell. 



LETTER XII. 
Brutus to Cicero y greeting. 

It is easier for you to imagine, than for me to express, how 
much delight I felt on learning the exploits of our Brutus 
and the consuls. I am pleased with other things, and am glad 
that they happened; but I am especially delighted that the 
sally made by Brutus was not only advantageous to him- 
self, but of the greatest service to the attainment of the 
victory. As to what you say, in your letter, that the cause 
of the three Antonies is one and the same, and that it is for 
me to determine what opinions I should entertain, I have 
no opinion but this, that the right of decision concerning 
those citizens who were not killed in the battle against us, 
belongs to the senate or people of Rome. 

But, you will reply, you are wrong in this, that you call 
men of a hostile disposition to the republic, citizens. Nay, 
I am strictly right ; for what the senate has not yet decreed, 
or the Roman people ordered, I do not arrogantly pre- 



BRUTUS TO CICERO. 107 

judge, or bring under my own decision. Nor do I change 
my feelings with regard to this particular in my conduct, 
that from him whom circumstances did not compel me to 
put to death/ I neither took anything away with cruelty, 
nor did I treat him with at all too much indulgence, but kept 
him in my power as long as the war lasted. I look upon it 
as by far more honoui-able, and what the republic may 
better allow, to abstain from persecuting the miserable in 
their misfortunes, rather than to heap boundless powers on 
those already powerful, which may but excite their cupidity 
and arrogance. 

In this respect, my dear Cicero, best and bravest of men, 
deservedly most dear to me for my own sake, and for that of 
the republic, you seem to trust too much to your hopes, and to 
be too willing, as soon as any one has done anything properly, 
to give and entrust everything to him, as if it were not easy 
for a mind corrupted by bribery to be led away to evil counsels. 
Such is your good temper, that you will bear an admonition 
with equanimity, especially in regard to the safety of the 
commonwealth. Still, you will do what you yourself think 
best, and I will do the same when you have given me your 
opinion. 

At present, my dear Cicero, we must take care not to exult 
idly at the overthrow of Antony, and not to allow our method 
of eradicating the first evil to cause the production of a 
second and worse calamity ; for no misfortune can now befal 
us, either through inadvertence, or passive permission, in 
which there would not be something to blame in all, and 
especially in you, whose authority the senate and people of 
Rome not only allow, but desire to be, as great as that of one 
man can possibly be in a free state ; — authority which you 
are bound to uphold by cherishing sentiments, not only of 
honour, but of prudence. Nor is any exercise of prudence, 
of which you have abundance, necessary to be demanded 
from you, except moderation in dispensing honours. All 
other eminent qualities are found in you in such a degree 
that they may be compared to those of any of the ancients ; 
but this one propensity of yours, proceeding, as it does, from 
grateful and liberal feelings, requires to be checked by a more 

^ He refers again to Caius Antony, who was in his power, and seems 
to think the war terminated by the battle of Mutina. 



108 BRUTUS TO CICERO. 

cautious and moderate exercise of generosity; for the senate 
ought to give nothing to any one, which may be either a pre- 
cedent or a protection to disaffected persons. I am very 
apprehensive, therefore, about the consulship, lest your friend 
Caesar should think that he has already mounted higher 
through your decrees than he will rise from his present 
eminence, if he become consul. But if Antony found in 
the instruments of regal power left him by another an oppor- 
tunity of assuming regal power himself, of what disposition 
do you think any one likely to be, who by the authority, not 
of a slain tyrant, but of the senate itself, imagines that he has 
a right to covet all imaginable power ? 

I shall then, accordingly, praise your good fortune and your 
prudence, when I begin to see clearly that Csesar will be 
contented with the extraordinary honours which he has al- 
ready received. Are you then, you will say, going to make 
me liable for the misconduct of another? For another's mis- 
conduct assuredly, if measures might have been taken to 
prevent its occurrence. I only wish that you could clearly 
see my fears respecting him. 

After I had written this letter, I heard that you were made 
consul. If I really see that come to pass, I shall then indeed 
begin to imagine to myself a true republic, relying on its own 
strength. Your son is well, and has been sent forward into 
Macedonia with the cavalry. 

The 15th of May. From the camp. 



LETTER XIIL 

Brutus to Cicero, greeting. 

No one can know better than yourself, whose exertions and 
anxieties for the commonwealth have been so great, how dear 
Lucius Bibulus ought to be to me. And, therefore, either 
his own virtue, or our friendship, ought sufficiently to recom- 
mend him to you ; so that I think I need not write at any 
length to you. For my wishes ought to have influence with 
you, provided they are reasonable, or provided they are ex- 
pressed in compliance with a necessary duty. He has resolved 
to be a candidate foi Pansa's place; and we both solicit 



BRUTUS TO CICERO. 109 

a nomination for it from you ; for you cannot confer this 
favour on one more closely connected with you than I am, or 
nominate any one more deserving than Bibulus. 

Why need I say anything about Domitius and Apuleius, 
when they are thoroughly recommended to you by their owd 
good qualities? Still you ought to support Apuleius by your 
influence ; but the character of Domitius will be made 
apparent from his own letter. Do not exclude Bibulus from 
your confidence, a man of such merit already, that, believe 
me, he is likely to become one that may deserve the praises 
of the few resembling yourself. 



LETTEE XIY. 
Brutus to Cicero^ greeting. 

Do not wait for me to offer you any formal expression of 
thanks ; for such formality ought long ago to have been 
banished from our friendship, which has arrived at the utmost 
degree of affection. 

Your son is not with me at present ; but we are to meet in 
Macedonia; for he has been ordered to bring the cavalry 
from Ambracia through Thessaly, and I have written to him 
to meet me at Heraclea. When I see him, since you give me 
leave to do so, we will settle the matter together about his 
returning to offer himself a candidate, or to recommend him- 
self for that honour. I most earnestly recommend to you 
Glycon, Pansa's physician, who is married to the sister of our 
fiiend Achilles ; for we hear that he has fallen under sus- 
picion with Torquatus of having been accessory to the death 
of Pansa, and is kept in prison as a murderer; but nothing 
is less worthy of belief; for who has suffered more misfortune 
by the death of Pansa ? Moreover, he is a modest and pru- 
dent man; one whom no personal advantage seems likely 
to have prompted to crime. I entreat you, and, indeed, 
earnestly entreat you, (for our friend suffers no less anxiety 
than is natural,) to deliver him from custody and to save 
him. I think that this concerns my duty in regard to my 
private affairs as much as any other thing whatever. 

While I was writing this letter to you, a letter was 



110 CICERO TO BRUTUS. 

delivered to me by Satrius, the lieutenant of Caius Trebonius, 
from Tullius and Deiotarus, with the news that Dolabella had 
been defeated and put to flight. 

I have sent you a Greek letter from a man named Cyche- 
reus, which was written to Satrius. 

My friend Flavins has chosen you as arbitrator in a dis- 
pute which he has with the people of Dyrrhachium about an 
estate ; and both I and Flavins^ my dear Cicero, entreat you 
to bring the affair to a settlement. There is no doubt what- 
ever, that the city was indebted to the man who has made 
Flavins his heir ; nor do the Dyrrhachians themselves deny 
this ; but they declare that the debt was remitted by Csesar. 
Do not allow an injury to be done by your friends to my 
friend. 

The 16th of May. The camp in the lower part of Candavia.^ 



LETTER XY. 

Cicero to Brutus, greeting. 

After my letter had been written and sealed up, a letter 
was brought to me from you full of news : and, what was the 
strangest of all things, saying, that Dolabella had sent five 
cohorts into the Chersonese. Has he such an abundance of 
men with him, that he, who was said to be fleeing from Asia, 
can attempt to attack Europe? And did he think that he 
would be able to do anything with five cohorts, when you 
have in that country five legions, an excellent body of cavalry, 
and a very numerous force of allies? I hope indeed that 
those cohorts are already yours, since that robber has been 
so insane. 

I greatly approve of your wisdom, in not having moved 
your army from ApoUonia and Dyrrhachium until you heard 
of the flight of Antony, the sally of Brutus, and the victory 
of the Roman people. As to what you write, therefore, that 
you have since determined to lead your army into the 
Chersonese, and not to permit the empire of the Roman 
people to be a sport to a most profligate enemy, you act as 
becomes your own dignity, and for the advantage of the 
republic. 

^ A mountainous district between Macedonia and Illyricum. 



BRUTUS TO ATTICUS. Ill 

With respect to your intelligence of the sedition which has 
taken place in the fourth legion about Caius Antony, (you 
will take what I say in good part,) the severity of the soldiers 
pleases me better than your own. 

I am very glad indeed that you have experienced the good- 
will of the army and of the cavalry. 

If you have any news about Doiabella, you will send me 
word of it, as you promise; with respect to whom, I am 
very much pleased that I had provided beforehand that your 
judgment should be unfettered as to carrying on war against 
him j it was of very great importance to the republic, as I 
perceived at the time; and, as I now think, to your own 
dignity. 

As to what you write, that *• I have managed so as to be 
able to pursue the Antonies at perfect leisure," and praise me 
for having done so, I dare say that such appears to you to be 
the case; but I myself am far from approving of the dis- 
tinction which you draw ; for you write, that '- civil wars are 
to be prevented with more resolution, than revenge is to be 
inflicted on the vanquished." On this point, my dear Brutus, 
I most completely disagree with you ; not that I yield to 
you in clemency; but a salutary severity is far superior to an 
empty show of mercy. If we are determined to be merciful, 
we shall never be without civil wars. However, this you 
must settle. As to myself, I may say what the Father in 
Plautus's Trinummus savs. 

But for my part, my life is almost ended ; 
You are the most concern' d. 

Take my word for it, my dear Brutus, you will be crushed, 
if you do not take care : for you will not always have the 
people in the same disposition as at present; nor the senate; 
nor the leader of the senate. You may receive this as de- 
clared to you by the oracle of the Pythian Apollo; nothing 
can be more true. 18th of May. 



LETTER XYI. 

Brutus to Atticus, greeting. 

You write me word, that Cicero is surprised that I never 
give any opmion of his actions. Since you press the question. 



112 BRUTUS TO ATTICUSo 

I will, under compulsion from you, tell you what I think. I 
know that Cicero has done everything with the best inten- 
tions: for what is better known to me than his disposition 
towards the republic? Yet he seems to me, though of all 
men the most prudent, to have done some things (what shall 
I say*?) imprudently, or with a view to popularity, since in 
the cause of the republic he has not hesitated to make the 
most powerful Antony his enemy. I know not what to say 
to you, except this one thing, that the cupidity and boldness 
of the boy Caesar have been rather excited than repressed by 
Cicero ; and that he gives way so much to his indulgence for 
him, as not to restrain himself from attacks upon others, 
attacks which recoil upon himself with double force; since 
he himself has put more persons than one to death,^ and 
since he must confess himself to be an assassin before he 
makes the objections to Casca's^ act which he does make, and, 
in his conduct to Casca, imitates Bestia.^ 

Because we are not every moment boasting of the ides of 
March, as he is always talking of the nones^ of December, 
will Cicero, for that reason, condemn that most laudable act 
on a better pretext than that on which Bestia and Clodius 
have been accustomed to inveigh against his consulship ? 
Our good friend Cicero boasts to me, that he has supported 
the whole war against Antony in the garb of peace. Of 
what profit is that to me, if a succession to the position occu- 
pied by Antony is demanded as the wages for having put 
Antony down, and if he, who has repressed that evil, has 
become the author of another, which will have a more solid 
foundation, and a deeper root, if we will but allow it 1 for the 
line of conduct which he has' taken is that of one who is 

^ In Catiline's plot, for wMch he put five of the principal conspira- 
tors to death. — Middleton. 

2 The passage seems to imply that Cicero had reproached him for 
killing Caesar, and called him an assassin. — Middleton. 

^ L. Calpurnius Bestia was a tribune of the people, at the expiration 
of Cicero's consulship ; supposed to have been deeply engaged in 
Catiline's conspiracy ; and, when Cicero laid down his office, joined 
with his colleague Metellus in prohibiting him from speaking to the 
people ; and was ever after a perpetual enemy and reviler of his admi- 
nistration. — Vid. Sallust, c. 43 ; Plutar. in Cic. — Middleton. 

^ It was on the nones of December that Cicero crushed the con- 
spiracy of Catiline. The whole tone of this letter proves it to be a 
forgery, and a very clumsy one. 



BRUTUS TO ATTICUS. 113 

afraid, not of tyranny itself, but of Antony being the 
tyrant. 

But I do not thank the man who, provided that he is not 
slave to an angry master, does not object to slavery itself; 
but to whom even triumphs and rewards are decreed, and 
who is honoured with every sort of complimentary vote. 
A man ought to be ashamed to desire that fortune of which 
he has now taken on him the name ! Is this the conduct of 
a man of consular rank ] Does this become Cicero 1 Since 
you would not let me be silent, you will read what must of 
necessity be unpleasant to you. Indeed, I feel myself with 
how much uneasiness I write this to youj nor am I ignorant 
what your sentiments are with regard to the present state of 
affairs, which, though desperate, you think may still be 
retrieved. And in truth, my dear Atticus, I do not blame 
you; for your age, your habits, and your family, render you 
inactive, as, indeed, I have learned from the report of our 
friend Flavins. 

But I return to Cicero. What difference is there between 
Salvidienus and him 1 or what more would Salvidienus pro- 
pose to be voted to Octavius than he does ? You will reply, 
he is still afraid of the remains of civil war. Is there then 
any one so afraid of a defeated enemy, as not to think that 
there is also reason to fear the power of one who has a vic- 
torious army, and the rashness of a boy 1 Or does he act 
thus, because he thinks that everything ought to be sur- 
rendered to Octavius, at once and voluntarily, because of his 
great dignity 1 the great folly of fear, so to guard against 
that very object which we fear, that, when we perhaps might 
have avoided it, we of our own accord invite it and draw it 
upon ourselves ! We are too much afraid of death and exile 
and poverty : these things appear to Cicero to be the very 
extreme of evils ; and as long as he finds people from whom 
he can obtain what he wishes, and by whom he may be 
honoured and praised, he does not despise slavery, provided 
it be honourable ; if indeed anything can be honourable in 
the worst and most wretched of all contumely. 

Though Octavius, therefore, call Cicero his father; though 
he refer everything to him, and extol him, and thank him ; 
yet it will be seen at last that his words are at variance with 
his acts : for what can be so inconsistent with everv feelinoj of 



114 BRUTUS TO ATTICU8. 

a human being, as to look upon that man as a parent, who 
is not even in the condition of a free man 1 Yet that excel- 
lent man directs his efforts only to this end, makes this his 
aim, hastens to attain this object, that Octavius may be 
favourable to him. I indeed now think nothing of those 
accomplishments, with which I know that Cicero is so com- 
pletely furnished; for of what profit to him are the writings 
which he has composed in such vast abundance, in defence of 
the liberty of our country, concerning dignity, concerning 
death, and exile, and poverty 1 and how much more justly 
does Philippus ^ appear to understand things, who has given 
less to a stepson than Cicero gives to a stranger 1 Let him 
cease, therefore, in his boasting, to insult our sorrows ; for what 
advantage is it to us that Antony has been defeated, if he is 
defeated only that what he held may be open to another ? 
Although your letter intimates that things are doubtful. 

Let Cicero then live, as he can endure to do so, a suppliant, 
and submissive to another; if he has no regard either to 
his age, his honours, or his past achievements. As for me, 
there will assuredly be no condition of slavery so attractive, 
as that I should be diverted by it from waging war with the 
thing itself, that is to say, with kingly authority, with extra- 
ordinary commands, with absolute dominion, and with power 
that seeks to set itself above the laws, even though Antony 
be a good man, as you describe him, but as I never thought 
him to be. But our ancestors would have no master over 
them, even if he had been their father. 

^ If I did not love you really as much as Cicero is persuaded 
that he is loved by Octavius, I should not have written this 
to you. I am sorry that you must be vexed at what I have . 
now written, since you are greatly attached to all your friends, 
and especially to Cicero ; but assure yourself that nothing is 
abated of my good-will towards him, though much of my 
favourable opinion of him ; for it can never be, but that as 
anything appears to a man, so he will form his opinion of it. 
I wish you had sent me word, what are the conditions offered 
to my dear Attica ;2 I might have been able to tell you some- 

^ Philippus had married Atia, the mother of Octavius ; but the letter 
is mistaken, for Philippus had gone far beyond Cicero in the honours 
which he wished to procure for Octavius. 

^ The daughter of Atticus. Paul Manutius supposes that the allu- 
sion intended is to a proposal of marriage. 



CICEKO TO BRUTUS. 115 

thing of my own feelings on the subject. I do not wonder 
that the health of my dear Portia is an object of concern to 
you. 

To conclude, I will cheerfully do what you ask me ; for my 
sisters also make the same request; and I know the man, 
and what it is that he wants. 



LETTER XVII. 

Cicero to Brutus, greeting, 

I • SHOULD perform the same office for you, which you per- 
formed for me in my sorrow/ and should endeavour to comfort 
you by letter, if I did not know that you do not require in 
your distress the remedies with which you alleviated my 
grief; and I wish that you may now cure yourself with 
greater ease than I, on that occasion, cured myself. For it 
is inconsistent with the character of so gTeat a man as you 
are, not to be able to do himself, what he has recommended 
to another. As for myself, not only the arguments which you 
had collected, but your authority, deterred me from indulging 
in too much sorrow : for, when I appeared to you to bear my 
distress with less fortitude than became a man, especially one 
who was in the habit of addressing consolation to others, you 
reproached me in your letters in harsher language than was 
your habit. Having, therefore, a high opinion of your 
wisdom, and being in awe of it, I recollected myself, and 
attached the more weight to the things which I had formerly 
learned and read and heard, after your authority was added 
to them. 

And at that time, my dear Brutus, I had to obey only 
duty, and my natural disposition ; you have to regard the 
people, and the public stage (as we say) on which you are ; 
for since the eyes, not only of your own army, but of all your 
fellow-citizens, and almost of all nations, are turned upon you, 
it least of all becomes him by whose means we are rendered 
bolder, to appear himself weakened • in spirit. You have 
indeed met with affliction, (for you have lost that to which 
there was nothing similar on earth,) and you must grieve at 
^ For his daughter TuUia. 
i2 



118 CICERO TO BRUTUS. 

SO severe a misfortune, lest to want all sense of grief should 
be found more wretched than to grieve; but as it is bene- 
ficial to others to mourn with moderation, it is for you 
necessary. 

I would say more, if even what I have said was not too 
much to say to you. 

We are looking for you and your army, without which, 
(though everything else may succeed to our wish,) we 
scarcely seem likely to have sufficient freedom. Of the 
general aspect of the affairs of the commonwealth, I will 
write more at length; and, perhaps, with more certainty, 
in a letter which I was thinking of entrusting to our friend 
Yetus. 



LETTER XVIIT. 
Cicero to Brutus, greeting. 

Although I was just going to give a letter to Messala 
Corvinus, still I did not like my friend Yetus to go to you 
without a letter from me. The republic, my dear Brutus, is 
in a situation of the greatest danger; and though victorious, 
we are forced to fight again; this has happened through the 
wickedness and folly of Marcus Lepidus. 

For the republic, there was nothing at which I felt greater 
concern, than that I was unable to yield to the entreaties of 
your mother and sister; for I thought that I should easily 
satisfy you, which is an object of the highest importance 
with me. 

For in no way could the cause of Lepidus be distinguished 
from that of Antony; indeed, in everybody's judgment it was 
the worse of the two, because after Lepidus had been com- 
plimented by the senate with the highest honours, and after 
he had only a few days before sent an admirable letter to 
the senate, he suddenly not only received the relics of our 
defeated enemies as his friends, but is even carrying on a most 
vigorous war against us by land and sea, of which it is uncer- 
tain what will be the result. When we are asked, therefore, 
to show pity to his children, no argument is advanced why 
the greatest severities are not to be endured by us, (may 



BRUTUS TO CICERO. 117 

Jupiter avert the omen !) if the father of those children should 
be victorious. 

Not indeed that it escapes my recollection, how bitter 
a thing it is that the crimes of fathers should be atoned for 
by the punishment of their children ; but this has been 
admirably provided by the laws, that their affection for their 
children may make the parents more truly attached to the 
repubhc. It is Lepidus, therefore, who is cruel to his chil- 
dren, not he who pronounces Lepidus a public enemy; and 
if he, after laying down his arms, had been condemned for 
violence to the state, in a trial for which he would have 
had nothing to say in his defence, his children would suffer 
the same punishment, — their property being confiscated; 
although what your mother a-nd sister deprecate for those 
children, the same and many more cruel evils Lepidus, 
Antony, and the rest of our enemies, are denouncing against 
us all. 

At this time, therefore, our greatest hope is placed in you, 
and in your army. It is of the very greatest consequence, 
both to the general state of the commonwealth, and also to 
your own glory and dignity, that you, as I have written before, 
should come into Italy with all possible speed; for the 
republic is in the greatest need, both of your forces, and of 
your wisdom. 

Because of your letter, I gladly embraced Yet us, out of 
regard to his good- will and singular service to you; and I 
see that he really is most thoroughly attached and devoted 
both to you and to the republic. I shall see my Cicero, as I 
hope, shortly, for I trust that he will very soon come into 
Italy with you. 



LETTER XIX. 

Brutus to Cicero, greeting. 

The fear that every one else entertains of Marcus Lepidus, 
makes me also fear. If he should withdraw himself from us, 
(a suspicion which I hope that men have entertained of him 
groundlessly and wrongfully,) I beg and entreat you, my 
dear Cicero, invoking our intimate friendship and your good- 
will to me, to forget that the children of my sister are sons 



118 CICERO TO BRUTUS. 

of Lepidus, and to think that I have succeeded to the place 
of father to them; if I obtain this of you, then there is 
nothing, assuredly, which you will hesitate to undertake in 
their behalf. 

Other people live with their relations on different terms; 
I can do nothing for the children of my sister sufficient to 
satisfy either my inclination or my feelings of duty. But 
what is there that good citizens can grant me, (if I am worthy 
of having anything granted me,) or what is there that I can 
do for my mother or sister, or for these children, if their 
uncle Brutus has no weight with you, and the rest of the 
senate, to counterbalance the conduct of their father Lepidus ? 
I am not able to write you a long letter, for my anxiety 
and sorrow; nor, indeed, have I any reason: for if in a 
matter of such importance, and one that touches ' me so 
closely, there is need of words to arouse or to encourage 
you, there is no hope that you will do what I wish, and 
what you ought. 

Do not, therefore, expect a long entreaty from me. Look 
upon me ; consider who I am ; a man that has a right to 
obtain this favour either from Cicero, as one closely attached 
to me as a private individual, or from a man of consular 
rank, and of such a character, without reference to private 
friendship. What you resolve to do, I should wish you as 
soon as possible to let me know in reply. 

The 1st of July. — At the camp. 



LETTER XX. 

Cicero to Brutus, greeting. 

As yet I have received no letter from you ; nor even any 
report to tell me that you, having received the authority of 
the senate for such a step, were proceeding with your army 
to Italy ; though the republic was very desirous for you to do 
that, and to do it with all speed. For our intestine evil 
grows worse and worse every day; nor do we suffer more 
from our foreign enemies than from our domestic foes, who 
existed, indeed, at the very beginning of the war, but who at 
that time were more easily put down. The senate then 



CICERO TO BRUTUS. 119 

assumed a more erect attitude, being roused not only by my 
known opinions, but also by my exhortations. 

In the senate, Pansa was energetic and fierce enough, both 
against the rest of this faction, and especially against his 
father-in-law, who, as consul, wanted neither courage at the 
beginning of his office, nor fidelity at the end. The war was 
carried on at Mutina in such a way that there was no fault to 
be found with Caesar. There may have been something to 
blame in Hirtius ; and the general fortune of the war, if 
compared with prosperous ones, has been wavering ; if with 
disastroias ones, good. The republic was victorious, the troops 
of Antony having been routed, and he himself expelled by 
1 Brutus. But so many errors were afterwards committed, 
that, as one may say, victory sHpped through our fingers; 
our generals did not pursue the enemy, though disheartened, 
disarmed, disabled ; and an opportunity was given to Lepidus, 
through which we might feel his inconstancy, often felt 
indeed before in still greater disasters. The armies of Brutus 
and Plancus are good, but untrained. The auxiliary forces 
from the Gauls are very faithful and very numerous. But 
some persons, by most scandalous letters, and by treacherous 
accounts and information, have excited Caesar, who has 
hitherto been governed by my counsels, and who is himself 
of a most excellent disposition and admirable steadiness, to 
conceive a confident hope of obtaining the consulship. And 
as soon as I perceived that such was the case, I never ceased 
to warn him, as he was absent, by letter, nor to reproach his 
friends, who were here on the spot, and who appeared to be 
encouraging that desire of his : nor did I, in the senate, 
hesitate to lay open the true source of those most flagitious 
counsels ; nor do I remember the senate or the magistrates to 
have been on any occasion better disposed. For it has never 
happened before, when there has been a question about con- 
ferring some honour out of the usual course of things on 
a powerful man — I may even say, on the most powerful man 
in the state (since power now depends on force and arms) — 
that no tribune of the people, no one invested with any other 
magistracy, no private individual, ever could be found to 
propose it. 

But still, with all this exhibition of resolution and virtue, 
the city was nevertheless in an anxious state ; for we are 



120 CICERO TO BRUTUS. 

mocked, my dear Brutus, both by the licentiousness of the 
soldiers and the insolence of the generals. Every one de- 
mands to have as much authority in the republic as he has 
force at command. Neither reason, nor moderation, nor 
law, nor precedent, nor duty, nor even the deliberate judg- 
ment and opinion of the citizens, nor regard for the estima- 
tion of posterity, has any weight at all. 

I, foreseeing all this a long time ago, was fleeing from Italy, 
at the very time when the news of your edicts caused me to 
return. But you, Brutus, roused me again at Yelia ; for 
although I grieved that I was going to a city from which you, 
who had delivered it, were taking flight, (which indeed had 
formerly happened to me also, under a similar danger and 
sadder fortune,-^) still I proceeded, and came to Eome, and 
without any support made Antony quake ; and, in opposi- 
tion to his impious arms, I by my authority and counsels 
secured for us the protection of Csesar, which was volun- 
tarily offered; and if he remains in the same disposition 
and continues to be guided by me, we seem likely to have 
quite sufficient defence. But if the counsels of bad men 
have more weight than mine, or if the tenderness of his age 
-proYQ unable to support the heavy burden of affairs, all our 
hope is in you. Fly to us, therefore, I beseech you ; and, in 
the result, complete the deliverance of that republic which 
you have already delivered, more through your own virtue and 
magnanimity than through any train of circumstances. A 
general concourse of all classes will gather round you. Exhort 
Cassius to the same course by letter. There is no hope of 
liberty anywhere except in the head-quarters of your united 
armies. In the west, we find both generals and armies 
entirely true to us. And, for my part, I feel confident that 
the support of the young Octavius may be relied on ; but so 
many persons are trying to shake his fidelity, that I some- 
times am afraid that he may be influenced by them. 

You now know the general aspect of the affairs of the com- 
monwealth, as they stood at the time when I wrote this letter. 
I trust that, in process of time, they may grow better ; but if 

^ He alludes to tlie case of his exile, when lie was .not only driven 
out of the city by his enemies, as Brutus now was, but was banished 
by a particular law, which had not yet happened to Brutus, though it 
did in a short time Sifter.— Middleion. 



CICERO TO BRUTUS. 121 

the contrary should be the case, (which presage may the gods 
avert !) I shall grieve for the fate of the republic which de- 
served to be immortal : but for myself how short a space of 
life is left ! 



LETTER XXI. 

Cicero to Brutus, greeting. 

Your letter was short. Short, do I say? It was no letter 
at all. Does Brutus, at such a crisis as this, write me those 
lines only. You had better have written nothing at all ; and 
yet you expect letters from me. Which of your friends has 
ever come to you without a letter from me *? And which of 
my letters had not something of consequence in it ? If, indeed, 
they have failed to reach you. I suppose that not even your 
own family letters have arrived either. 

You write me word, however, that you will send me a 
longer letter by my son Cicero. You will indeed do well; 
but still this one ought to have been longer. But I, as soon 
as you wrote to me about Cicero's departure from you,^ im- 
mediately packed off a courier with letters for him, bidding 
him, even if he had reached Italy, to return to you; for 
nothing could be more agreeable to me, or more honourable 
to him, although I had several times written to him that the 
comitia for the election of priests had, by my extreme exer- 
tions, been postponed to another year; a delay which I exerted 
myself to procure, not only for the sake of Cicero himself, but 
for that of Domitius, Cato, Lentulus, and the Bibuli, as I also 
wrote to you. 

However, when yoa sent off to me that dwarfish letter of 
yours, this was not yet known to you. 

I do therefore, my dear Brutus, beg of you with all earnest- 
ness, not to let my son depart from you, but to bring him 
with you when you come ; and this, if you have any just 
regard for the republic, for the benefit of which you were 
born, you ought to do instantly. For the war has revived, 
and that through the no small wickedness of Lepidus. And 

^ This alludes, as Middleton observes, to Letter XIII., in which it 
was said that young Cicero was to come to Rome, to be a candidate for 
one of the vacant priesthoods. 



122 CICERO TO BRUTUS. 

Caesar's army, which was most excellent, is not only of no use 
to us, but even compels us to demand the presence of yours. 
If that once reaches Italy, then there will be no citizen, at 
least no one who deserves to be called a citizen, who will not 
betake himself to your camp, although we have Decimus 
Brutus admirably united with Plancus. But "you are not 
ignorant how little to be trusted the dispositions of men are 
when infected with party spirit, and how uncertain, too, are 
the events of battles. 

Moreover, if we conquer, as I hope we shall, still affairs will 
require the powerful direction of your wisdom and influence 
to guide them. Come therefore to our assistance, I implore 
you, and come as soon as possible ; and be assured that you 
did not do a greater service to your country on the ides of 
March, on which you repelled slavery from your fellow-citizens, 
than you will do now if you come speedily. July the 13th. 



LETTER XXII. 

Cicero to Brutus, greeting. 

You have Messala with you : how then shall I be able, by 
any letter which I may write with ever so much care, to ex- 
plain to you more clearly than he can what is going on in 
the republic, and what is the state of affairs in it, since he is 
thoroughly acquainted with everything, and is able also tc 
set it before you, and represent it to you in the neatest pos- 
sible manner? For do not fancy, my dear Brutus (although 
it is not necessary for me to write to you what is already well 
known to you, yet I cannot pass over in silence such excel- 
lence in all qualities which deserves praise) ; do not fancy, 
I sa;y , that there is any man like him for honesty, consistency, 
anxiety, and zeal for the commonwealth; so that eloquence, 
in which he wonderfully excels, seems scarcely to find in his 
character any room as a subject of praise, although in this 
very particular his wisdom is the more conspicuous; with 
such dignified judgment and exceeding skill has he practised 
himself in the soundest kind of oratory. So great, too, is 
his modesty, so incessant his application to study, that it is 
not to his genius (eminent as it is) that his greatest obligations 
appear to be due. 



CICERO TO BRUTUS. 123 

But I am letting myself be carried away too far by my 
regard for him; for it was not my sole object in this letter 
to extol j^Iessala. especially to Brutus, to whom his merit is 
not less known than to myself, and to whom are still better 
known those studies of his which I am now praising. And 
though I was grieved at taking leave of him, I was comforted 
by this one consideration, that as he was going to you, whom 
I look upon as another self, he was both performing his duty 
and pursuing a path to the greatest glory. 

But enough of this. I come now, after a long interval 
certainly, to a certain letter of yours, in which, while praising 
me on many accounts, you found fault with me in one point 
as being too liberal, and as it were prodigal, in giving my 
voice for awarding honours.^ It is for this that you blame 
me ; others, perhaps, charge me with being too severe as to 
punishment and penalties; unless, perhaps, you bring both 
accusations against me. If such be the case, I desire that my 
opinion on both these subjects should be thoroughly under- 
stood by you; not merely that I may cite the saying of 
Solon, who was both the wisest of the seven wise men, and 
also the only legislator of the seven, and who said that com- 
monwealths were held together by two things, rewards and 
punishments ; for I would add, that there certainly is mode- 
ration to be observed in both these points as in all other 
things, and a certain medium to be kept as to each of them. 
But it is not my purpose to discuss so important a topic in 
this place. 

However, I do not think it improper to explain to you 
what I have aimed at during this war in the several votes 
which I have given in the senate. 

After the death of Caesar and your memorable ides of 
!\Iarch, my dear Brutus, you have not forgotten what I 
said had been omitted ^ by you, and how great a tempest 
I declared to be hanging over the republic. A great plague 
had been repelled by you, a great stain on the Eoman 
people had been effaced, and an immortal glory had been 
gained by yourselves. But the whole equipage of kingly 
power was only transferred to Lepidus and Antony, one of 
whom was a vacillating man, the other polluted with vice ; 
both of them were afraid of peace, and enemies to tranquillity. 

^ Especially to Octavius. 2 /,g_ the putting Antony to death. 



124 CICERO TO BRUTUS. 

While these men were burning with a desire of throwing the 
republic into confusion, we had no force that could be opposed 
to them ; but the whole city had roused itself with entire 
unanimity to preserve its freedom. We were at that time 
too energetic ; you perhaps acted more wisely in quitting the 
city which you had delivered, and declined the aid of Italy, 
which offered its services in your cause. When, therefore, 
I saw the whole city occupied by traitors, that neither you 
nor Cassius could be safe in it, and that it was overawed by 
the forces of Antony, I thought that I also ought to depart. 
For a city overwhelmed by wicked men, and deprived of all 
power of helping itself, was a wretched spectacle. 

But the same disposition which is always in me, through 
devotion to my country, could not bear to be absent from its 
dangers ; and accordingly, in the middle of my voyage to 
Achaia, when, at the times of the Etesian winds, the west 
wind, as if dissuading me from my resolution, had brought 
me back to Italy, I met you at Velia, and expressed the 
greatest concern on the occasion. For you were retreating, 
my dear Brutus: you were retreating, I say; since our 
friends the Stoics deny that it is for a wise man to flee. When 
I came to Eome, I immediately put myself forward to check 
the wickedness and insanity of Antony; and when I had 
exasperated him against myself, I began to adopt resolutions 
quite in the character of Brutus himself (for such resolutions 
are the peculiar inheritance of your family) to deliver the 
republic. 

The long recital of what followed I shall omit, for it relates 
to myself; I will only say that the character of this young 
man Csesar, by whose means, if we would but confess the 
truth, we still exist, has sprung wholly from the source of 
my counsels. No honours have been paid him from me, my 
dear Brutus, that were not justly his due; none that were 
not absolutely necessary. For when we first began to recover 
our liberties, when not even the divine virtue of Decimus 
Brutus had exerted itself in such a manner that we could 
appreciate its value, and when our whole hope of defence lay 
in that boy who had turned Antony away from our throats, 
what honour was too great to be voted to him? Although 
at that moment I paid him honour only in words, and that 
expressed in moderate terms, I also proposed to invest him with 



CICERO TO BRUTUS. 125 

militai-y command; and though this may have appeared a 
compliment to one of his age, yet it was indispensable, as he 
had an army; and what is an army without such command? 
Philippus proposed to vote him a statue ; Servius, first of all, 
voted him the privilege of standing for offices before the usual 
time ; Servilius made that time still earlier j nothing at that 
moment appeared too great for him. 

But, I know not how, men are more commonly found to be 
liberal under the influence of fear than grateful in the hour of 
victory. For I myself, when Decimus Brutus had been de- 
livered; when that day, most joyful to the city, had shed its 
light upon it, and that very day, as it happened, was the birth- 
day of Brutus, proposed a vote that the name of Brutus should 
be attached to that day in the calendar. And in this proposi- 
tion T followed the precedent of our ancestors, who paid this 
compliment to Larentia,^ a woman at whose altar in the Yela- 
. brum you pontiffs are in the habit of offering sacrifice. When 
I proposed this honour to Brutus, my object was that there 
should be in the calendar a memorial of his most welcome 
victory; but on that day I found that there were rather 
more malevolent than gTateful people in the senate. At that 
very time too I lavished, if you will have it so, honours on the 
dead, Hirtius and Pansa, as well as Aquila ; and who would 
blame me for so doing but those who, now that they are 
delivered firom their fear, have forgotten also their past 
danger 1 

To the grateful recollection of these services there was 
added another reason for my conduct, which I hoped might 
have a beneficial efiect upon posterity; for I wished that 
there should exist undying records of the public hatred to our 
most cruel enemies. I suspect, too, that this other matter is 
the less approved by you, because it is not approved by your 
friends, who are very excellent men indeed, but of no expe- 
rience in public affairs ; namely, the vote which I proposed, 
that Caesar might be permitted to enter the city with an 
ovation. But I am of opinion (though I may perhaps be 

^ It is rather uncertain who Larentia was : the tradition is that she 
was Romulus's nurse, and that Romulus instituted a yearly sacrifice 
and festival in her honour. The Yelabrum was a street or square, as 
Middleton remarks, where the Forum Boarium and Temple of Janus 
stood. 



126 CICERO TO BRUTUS. 

mistaken, nor is my temper such that my own opinions 
delight me in preference to those of others), that during the 
whole of this war I have not done a wiser thing. Why it is so 
I must not explain, lest I should seem to have been prudent 
rather than grateful; and even to say this is to say too much ; 
let us therefore turn to something else. 

I proposed that honours should be voted to Decimus 
Brutus, and also to Lucius Plancus. Those, indeed, are noble 
dispositions which are attracted by glory; but the senate 
also is wise, w^hich employs every method, provided it be 
honourable, by which it thinks that any one can be induced 
to support the republic. 

But in the case of Lepidus I am blamed; inasmuch as 
after I had proposed to erect a statue to him in the rostra, 
I at a subsequent time proposed to remove it. The truth 
was, that I sought by means of that honour to recall him 
from desperate measures; but the insane folly of that most 
vacillating of men defeated my prudence ; nor was so much 
harm done in raising a statue to Lepidus, as good in over- 
throwing it. 

I have said enough on the subject of honours ; I must now 
add a few words on the subject of punishment ; for I have re- 
peatedly understood from your letters, that you were desirous 
of having your clemency extolled towards those whom you 
had defeated in war. I believe that nothing is done by you 
otherwise than wisely; but to omit inflicting punishment on 
guilt, (for that is what is called pardoning,) even though 
under other circumstances it may be endurable, I think 
ruinous in this war. For of all the civil wars which within 
my recollection have taken place in our republic, there has not 
been one of such a character that, whichever side proved vic- 
torious, there would not still have been some form of a com- 
monwealth left : but in this war, what sort of republic we 
shall have, if victorious, I would not willingly say; if defeated, 
we shall certainly have none at all. I therefore pronounced 
very severe opinions against Antony; I pronounced severe 
ones against Lepidus ; not so much for the sake of inflicting 
vengeance upon them, as with a view at present to deter un- 
principled citizens by fear from making war on their country, 
and, for the future, to raise a record to prevent any one from 
imitating such rashness, although this opinion was not more 



CICERO TO BRUTUS. 127 

my own in particular than that of all the citizens. And in it 
there is indeed this appearance of cruelty, that the penalty 
reaches to their children who have deserved no punishment. 
But it is an ancient custom, and one which prevails in all 
states; since even the children of Themistocles were reduced 
to want. And if the same punishment falls on citizens 
judicially condemned, how could we be more merciful to 
enemies 1 

And what ground of complaint has any one against me, who 
must confess that if he had been victorious, he would himself 
have been more severe towards me? 

You have now the ground of the opinions which I de- 
livered, at least on this subject of honours and penalties. 
What opinions I entertained, and what votes I gave, on 
other matters, I think you have heard; but to mention these 
is not of so much necessity; what is absolutely necessary is, 
that you, my dear Brutus, should come into Italy with 
your army with all speed ; there is the strongest desire for 
your arrival; if you but set foot in Italy, all will flock to you. 
For whether we are victorious (and we should indeed already 
have been most gloriously victorious, if Lepidus had not 
chosen to overturn everything, and ruin himself as well as his 
friends), we shall require your authority to establish some 
constitution in the state ; or whether there be still struggles 
to come, our greatest hope is still in your authority and in 
the power of your army. But hasten to us, I conjure you 
by the gods ; for you know how much depends on opportu- 
nities, how much depends on promptness. 

I. will take all possible care of the interests of your sister's 
sons, as I hope that you will learn from the letters of your 
mother and your sister ; in which cause I have a greater 
regard for your wishes, which are most dear to me, than, as 
some think, for my own consistency. But in nothing have I 
a stronger wish both to be and to seem consistent, than in 
my affection for you. 



128 BRUTUS TO CICERO. 

LETTER XXIII. 
Brutus to Cicero, greeting, 

I HAVE read a small part of your letter, which you sent to 
Octavius, and which was forwarded to me by Atticus. Your 
zeal and anxiety for my safety have given me no new delight ; 
for it is not only a common thing, but one of even daily 
occurrence, for me to hear something about you which you 
have said or done, faithfully and honourably, for the mainte- 
nance of my dignity. Yet that same part of the letter 
which you wrote to Octavius about me has caused me as 
much concern as I am capable of feeling ; for you thank him 
on behalf of the republic in such language, in such a suppliant 
and humble tone, (what shall I say? I am ashamed of our 
condition and fortune, but still I must write it; you recom- 
mend my safety to him ; and what kind of death would not 
be preferable to safety so secured*?) that you show plainly 
that the overbearing power has not been removed, but only 
the master changed. Recollect the words that you have 
used, and then deny, if you can, that they are the language 
of prayer addressed by a slave to his king. You say that 
there is one thing only which is demanded and expected from 
him; namely, that he should allow those citizens, of whom 
virtuous men and the Roman people have a favourable 
opinion, to live in security. But what if he will not allow 
it ? Are we to have no existence 1 But it would be better to 
\iave none than to exist only through his permission. I, 
assuredly, do not believe that all the gods are so unfavourable 
to the safety of the Roman people that Octavius must be 
entreated for the safety of any citizen; I will not say for 
that of the deliverers of the whole world. For I am glad to 
take a high tone ; and it is fit that I should do so towards 
those who know not what is to be feared for each individual, 
or what ought to be asked of any one. 

Do you then confess, Cicero, that Octavius has this power, 
and are you nevertheless a friend to him? or, if you have 
any regard for me, do you wish me to appear at Rome, when 
I must first be recommended to that boy that I may have the 
liberty of being there? And for what have you to thank him, 
if you think be must be entreated to consent and allow us to 



BRUTUS TO CICERO. 12l| 

live in safety*? Is this to be regarded as a favour, that he 
prefers to be the person himself from whom such things are 
to be petitioned, rather than Antony ? Does any one address 
entreaties to a person who is the chastiser of the domineering 
power of another, and not rather his successor in it, that men 
who have dono great services to the republic may be per- 
mitted to live in it in safety? But that imbecility and 
despair (the fault of which is not to be imputed to you in a 
greater degree than to every one else) both impelled Julius 
Caesar to covet kingly power, and after his death persuaded 
Antony to endeavour to occupy the place of him who had 
been slain ; and now, too, it has elevated that boy to such 
a degree, that you have thought that the safety of such men 
as we are must be obtained of him by entreaties; and have 
considered that we shall only be safe through the mercy 
of one who is hardlv yet a man, and by no other means. 
But if we had recollected that we were Romans, these vilest 
of men would not be more bold in their desires to grasp 
dominion, than we should be in our determination to stop 
their course; nor would Antony have been more encouraged 
by the height of power attained by Csesar, than deterred by 
his fate. 

How can you, a man of consular rank, and the avenger of 
such atrocious crimes (though, while they are checked, I still 
fear that our ruin has only been postponed by you for a short 
time), how can you, I say, contemplate what you yourself 
have done, and at the same time approve those other things, 
or at least bear them with so lowly and acquiescent a spirit as 
to wear the appearance of one who does approve of them? 

What private ill-feeling had you towards Antony? None, 
for any other reason but that he assumed such authority, 
requiring that mens safety should be begged of him; that 
we, from whom he himself had received liberty, should enjoy 
only a precarious safety ; and that his will as to the common- 
wealth should be absolute. You then thought it time to 
seek for arms, by which he might be prevented from lording 
it .over us: but was it your object that, while he was pre- 
vented from so doing, we might address our prayers to some 
one else, who would permit himself to be put in his stead ; or 
that the republic might have its full rights and be mistress 
of itself? unless, indeed, our objection was not to slavery 

K 



130 BRUTUS TO CICERO. 

itself, but to some particular kind of slavery. But we might 
not only have endured our fortune, with Antony for an easy 
master, but with advantages also and honours, as sharers in 
them with him, to whatever extent we pleased; for what 
would he have denied to those whose patience he found to be 
the main support of his authority? But none of these con- 
siderations were of such importance that we should sell our 
good faith and Hberty for it. What would not this very boy, 
whom the name of Csesar appears to excite against the de- 
stroyers of Csesar, what would not he think it worth, (if there 
were an opportunity for such a bargain,) to have, with our 
support, as much power as he certainly is likely to have, 
since we are so eager to live, and to retain our fortunes, and 
to be called men of consular rank? But then that other 
Caesar will have been slain to no purpose ; and why did we 
3-ejoice at his death, if, after it, we were to be slaves no less 
than before? 

Let no anxiety be felt, then, by others. But, as for me, 
may all the gods and goddesses deprive me of everything, 
sooner than of the determination not to allow to the heir of 
the man whom I have slain what I did not allow to the man 
himself, and what I would not allow even to my own father, 
if he were to come to life again ; namely, that he should have 
more power than the laws and the senate with my permission. 
Can you possibly believe that the rest of the citizens will be 
free under him, without whose permission there is no room 
for us in the city? How, moreover, is it possible for you to 
obtain what you ask? for you ask him to permit us to be 
safe. Do we appear to you, then, certain of receiving safety 
from him when we have received life? And how can we 
receive it, if we first throw away our dignity and our freedom? 
Do you think that to live at Kome is to be safe? It is cir- 
cumstances, and not place, which must procure me safety. 
T was not safe while Caesar was alive, unless indeed it was 
after I had resolved upon that deed. Nor can I be an exile 
anywhere as long as I hate to be a slave, and to endure in- 
sults worse than all other evils. Is not this to fall back into 
the same darkness, when we request of him who has taken to 
himself the name of a tyrant, (while in Grecian states even 
the children of tyrants, after the parents are put down, are 
subjected to the same fate,) that the mortal enemies and 



BRUTUS TO CICERO. 131 

suppressors of absolute power may be allowed to live in 
safety 1 Can I wish to see this state in such a condition, or 
even think it a state at all, if it is not able to receive freedom 
when put into its hands, and even forced upon it ; and when 
it is more afraid of the name of the king who has been re- 
moved, in the person of a boy, than confident in itself, even 
after it has seen that very man who had the greatest power 
of all cut off by the public spirit of a few individuals ? Here- 
after, do not recommend me to your C^sar; no, nor even 
yourself, if you will listen to me. You value the number of 
years, which your time of life renders it probable that you 
may enjoy, at a very high rate, if, for the sake of them, you 
will supphcate that boy. 

In the next place, with regard to the admirable line of 
conduct which you have adopted, and still pursue, towards 
Antony, take care lest, instead of being praised as the part of 
great magnanimity, it should be imputed to fear. For if you 
like Octavius, as one from whom we must beg our safety, you 
will appear not to have objected to a master, but only to have 
been desirous of a more friendly one. That you praise him 
for what he has hitherto done, I commend you; for his 
conduct deserves to be praised ; provided only that he under- 
took that course of action in opposition to the power of an- 
other, and not for the sake of establishing his own. But when 
you judge that it is not only lawful for him to have such 
power, but also that it should be given him by you, so that 
he must be entreated not to prohibit us from living in safety, 
you then grant too high a reward to his merits ; for you are 
bestowing on him that very thing which the republic appeared 
to possess in consequence of his conduct. 

Nor does it occur to you, that if Octavius deserves any 

honours for waging war against Antony, the Roman people 

could then never bestow on those who eradicated that evil, 

and of whom these are the relics, anything with which their 

merit could be compensated, even if it were to heap upon 

them all honours and rewards at once. Bik see how much 

more lively men's fears are than their recollections, because 

Antony is alive and in arms ; but with respect to Caesar, all 

! that was possible, or ought to have been done, has been done ; 

; nor can it now be recalled and undone. But is Octavius a 

I person of such importance, that the Roman people ought to 

K 2 



132 BRUTUS TO CICERO. 

wait to see what decision he will form respecting us? And 
are we of so little consequence, that it seems proper to entreat 
a single individual for our safety? 

I, however, (to return to that point,) am of such a disposi- 
tion, that I not only would not address supplications to any 
one, but would repress those who require supplications to be 
made to them ; or else I will withdraw from those who are 
slaves, and fancy that Rome is in any place wherever I am 
permitted to be free. And I will pity you, in whom neither 
age, nor honours, nor the example of other men's virtue, can 
diminish the fond desire of life. For my part, I shall seem 
to myself to be happy, if I can but perpetually and constantly 
cherish the persuasion that due gratitude has been shown for 
my affection for my country. For what is more desirable 
than for a man, enjoying the recollection of glojrious actions 
and the possession of liberty, to look down upon human 
affairs? At all events, I will not yield to those who yield; 
nor will I be conquered by those who wish themselves to be 
conquered; and I will make every possible effort and 
endeavour, and never cease to attempt to free our city from 
slavery. If that fortune which ought to follow my endeavours 
shall attend them, we shall all rejoice; if not, at least I myself 
shall rejoice. For in what acts or meditations can my life be 
better spent, than in such as have for their object the deliver- 
ance of my fellow-citizens? You, my dear Cicero, I beg and 
exhort not to be weary, nor to distrust the event. Ever, in 
averting present evils, attend also to those which may come 
hereafter, lest they should make a way for themselves, unless 
you check them in time. Consider that the bold and free 
spirit, such as that with which you saved the state when 
consul, and uphold it now when you are of consular rank, is 
valueless without consistency and steadiness. I admit, indeed, 
that the condition of tried, is harder than that of untried 
virtue; for we expect services from it as debts ; and if any thing 
turns out unfortunately, we then reproach the possessors of it 
in a hostile spirit, as though we had been deceived by them. 

Although, therefore, it is conduct worthy of great praise 

for Cicero to resist Antony, yet, because his character as 

consul^ seemed necessarily to promise that he would be of 

similar character as a consular,^ no man wonders at it. But 

^ In suppressing the conspii-acy of Catiline. ^ In resisting Antony. 



CICERO TO BRUTUS. 133 

if the same Cicero should waver in that judgment with regard 
to others, which he has used with such firmness and magna- 
nimity in repelling Antony, he will not only deprive himself 
of all hope of future glory, but will cause even the renown 
of his past achievements to be forgotten. 

For nothing is great in itself, except that in which a prin- 
ciple of sound judgment is visible. And as it becomes no 
one more than yourself, to be attached to the republic, and 
to be the defender of its liberties, both from your talents and 
your actions, and in accordance with the wishes and demands 
of all men, Octavius must, consequently, not be solicited to 
allow us to live in safety. Eouse yourself rather, that you may 
feel convinced that that city, in which you have performed 
the greatest deeds, will ever be free and honourable, provided 
that the people have proper leaders to resist the counsels of 
the unprincipled. 



LETTER XXIV. 

Cicero to Brutus, greeting. 

After I had repeatedly exhorted you by letter to come as 
soon as possible to the succour of the republic, and to bring 
your army into Italy, and did not suppose that your own 
friends had any scruples about the propriety of the measure, 
I was requested by that most prudent and anxious lady, your 
mother,^ whose every care is bent upon you and devoted to 
you, to pay her a visit on the twenty-fifth of July, which I, 
as I was bound to do, did without hesitation. When I 
arrived, Casca and Labeo and Scaptius were with her. But 
she immediately mentioned the business on which she sent 
for me, and asked me what my opinion was: whether we 
ought to send for you, and consider such a step to be for your 
advantage, or whether it would be better for you to delay 
and remain where you were. I gave such an answer as I 

^ Servilia, the mother of Brutus, who is referred to in this letter, 
had intrigued with Caesar ; so that scandal had even called Brutuu 
Caesar's son. Brutus appears to have had a great opinion of her abilities, 
and to have been greatly guided by her in the transactions which fol- 
lowed upon Caesar's death. 



134 CICERO TO BRUTUS. 

thought most suited to your dignity and reputation ; saying 
that you should, at the earliest possible moment, bring your 
aid to the tottering and almost falling repubhc. For what 
misfortune, do you think, is not to be expected in a war in 
which the victorious armies declined to pursue a fleeing 
enemy ;^ in which a general, in the enjoyment of complete 
safety, of the most ample honours and the most abundant 
fortune, blessed with a wife and children, near relations of 
your own,^ declares war against the republic? and during 
which, (need I add?) amid the great unanimity of senate and 
people, there is still such a vast amount of evil remaining 
within the walls? But, at the time that I was writing this, 
I was afflicted with the utmost grief, because, when the re- 
public had accepted me as a surety,^ as it were, for this young 
man, this almost boy, I scarcely thought that I should be 
able to perform what I had undertaken. And an engagement 
for another person's principles and sentiments, especially in 
affairs of preeminent importance, is a graver obligation, and 
one more difficult to endure, than an engagement for money. 
For money can be paid, and the loss of property may be 
borne; but how are you to discharge that for which you have 
engaged to the state, unless he on whose behalf you made 
the engagement is willing to allow it to be discharged? Yet 
I shall be able, as I hope, to hold this youth to his engage- 
ments, in spite of many that offer resistance to me. For 
there seems to be in him a good natural disposition; but his 
age is ductile, and many are ready to lead him astray, who, 
by holding out to him the splendour of false honour, think 
that the perspicacity of his judgment may be dazzled. 

To my other troubles, therefore, is added the labour also 
of using every contrivance to keep the young man to his 
duty, that I may not incur the imputation of rashness. 
And yet what rashness is it? For I have bound him for 
whom I have become surety, rather than myself. JSTor is it 
possible that the republic should repent that I have become 
surety for him, since in his conduct he has grown more 

^ This alludes, observes Middleton, to Octavius, who, with Decimua 
Brutus, forbore to pursue Antony after the battle at Mutina. 

2 This refers to Lepidus, whose wife was the sister of Brutus. 

^ When Cicero speaks of being surety for Octavius, he refers to the 
Fifth Philippic, c. 8. Octavius was at this time only twenty years 
of age. 



CICERO TO BRUTUS. 135 

steady, not only from his natural disposition, but in conse- 
quence also of my promise. 

However, if I am not mistaken, the greatest difficulty in 
the republic is the want of pecuniary resources; for the re- 
spectable classes stop their ears more and more daily against 
the call for tribute ;^ because that which was collected by the 
tax of one per cent.,^ where the rich were iniquitously rated, 
has all been spent in rewards to the legions. 

Boundless expenses also threaten us, both for those armies 
with which we are now defended, and also for yours ; as to 
Cassius, he seems likely to come sufficiently provided. But 
I wish to discuss these and many other matters m conversa- 
tion with you ; and I trust to do so very soon. 

With respect to your sister's sons, my dear Brutus, I did 
not wait for you to write to me. Doubtless the times them- 
selves (for this war is sure to be protracted) reserve the whole 
aifair for you.^ But, from the very first, when I could form 
no conjecture with respect to the duration of the war, I 
pleaded the cause of the boys in the senate with such earnest- 
ness as I suppose you have already understood from their 
mother's letters. Nor shall there ever be any matter in 
which, even at the peril of my life, I will not both do and 
say what I think that you wish, and what I conceive to be 
for your advantage. Farewell. The 27th of July. 

^ This tribute seems to have been a sort of capitation tax, propor- 
tioned to each man's substance, and had been wholly disused in Kome 
ever since the conquest of Macedonia by Paullus ^milius, which pro- 
duced a revenue sufficient to ease the republic ever after from that 
burden, until the present necessity obliged them to renew it. Phn. 
H. iN". xxxiii. 3. Middleton. 

2 1 per cent, a month. 

^ Cicero, perceiving Brutus's great tenderness for his sister's chil- 
dren, puts him here again in mind that before the receipt even of his 
letters, he 'aad been using his authority with the senate to make that 
matter easj to them; but that, without any endeavours of his, the 
times then:selves would throw the affair into his hands whenever he 
should come into Italy, since the war, by the treachery of Lepidus, wa? 
DOW likely to be carried into length. Middleton. 



136 CICERO TO OCTAVIUS. 

LETTER XXV. 

Cicero to Octavius, greeting} 

Had permission been allowed me by your legions, which 
are most hostile to my name and to the Roman people, to 
come into the senate and discuss the affairs of the republic 
before that assembly, I should have done so ; and that not 
so much from inclination as from necessity; for no remedies 
which are applied to wounds cause such severe pain as those 
which tend to effect a complete cure. But since the senate 
is surrounded with armed men, it cannot honestly come to 
any decision but that it is afraid : (there are the standards of 
armies in the capitol; soldiers are strolling about the city;^ a 
camp is pitched in the Campus Martins; and all Italy is 
occupied in every quarter by legions raised to protect our 
liberties, but brought hither to enslave us, and by the cavalry 
of foreign nations :) I will for the present yield to you the 
forum, and the senate-house, and the most sacred temples of 
the immortal gods, in which (liberty, that revived for a time, 
being now again put down) the senate is consulted about 
nothing, fears much, and agrees to everything. 

In a short time, if the times should require such a step, I 
will also depart from the city, which, having been saved by 
me, in order that it might be free, I shall not endure to see 
in slavery. I shall be willing even to depart from life, which, 
although it is full of anxiety, yet, as long as it is likely to be 
of service to the state, consoles me with favourable hopes of 
a fair reputation with posterity ; but should those hopes be 
taken away, I shall die without hesitation; and I shall depart 
in such a manner, that good fortune shall appear to have been 
wanting to my judgment, rather than courage to myself 

But this one thing, which is at once an indication of my 
present distress, an evidence of the past injustice with which 

^ Midcileton himself gives up this letter as spurious, chiefly because 
he fancies that the style is inferior to others of Cicero's letters. " In 
short, it is no epistle, but the declamation of some boy \enting his 
indignation, and trying, under the person of Cicero, how weil he could 
harangue on the perfidy and ingratitude of Octavius." — Middleton*s 
Preface to the Epistles to Quintus and Brutus. 

2 It was contrary to the Roman constitution and laws to introduce 
the legions into the city. 



CICERO TO OCTAVIUS. 137 

[ have been treated, and a proof of my feeling for those from 
whom I am separated, I will not omit to mention, in order 
that since I am forbidden to do so while present, I may be 
of service in my absence : if indeed my personal safety is 
either useful to the commonwealth, or at the least connected 
with the public safety. For. by the faith of the immortal 
gods, (unless haply I appeal to those in vain whose ears apd 
minds are alienated from us.) and by the fortune of the 
Roman people, (which although it is now unfavourable to us, 
was at one time, and, as I trust, will again be propitious.) 
who is there so devoid of humanity, who so bitterly hostile 
to the name of this city, and to the homes of the citizens, as 
to be able either to conceal his grief, or to feel none, at such 
events as these ? Or who, if he cannot by any means remedy 
the public miseries, would not withdraw from his own share 
in the danger by death? 

For, that I may begin at the beginning, and proceed to the 
end, and compare the last events with the first, what day, as 
it has arrived, has not been more miserable than the preced- 
ing one? And what successive hour has not been more full 
of calamities to the Eoman people than that which was before 
it? Mark Antony, a man of the greatest courage, (would 
that he had also been a man of wise counsels !) after Caius 
Csesar had been removed (bravely, indeed, but far from for- 
tunately) from the dominion which he was exercising over 
the republic, had become eager to obtain a more king-like 
authority than a free city could possibly endure. He squan- 
dered the public money; he drained the treasury; he dimi- 
nished the revenues; he lavished the freedom of the city in 
every direction, in professed compliance with Caesar's will; 
he exercised a dictatorship ; he imposed laws ; he prevented 
a dictator from being appointed by law ; he himself in the 
senate opposed the decrees of the senate; he desired to en- 
gross all the provinces to himself. From a man, indeed, by 
whom Macedonia was despised as a province, though Csesar, 
when victorious, had taken it for himself, what could we hope 
or expect? 

You stood forward as the assertor of our freedom, a most 
excellent assertor according to your conduct at that time; 
(would that neither our own opinion, nor your assurances oi 
good-faith, had deceived us !) and collecting all the vetemn? 



138 CICERO TO OCTAVIUS. 

into one body, and drawing off two of the legions, from 
menacing the ruin of their country, to contribute to its 
safety, you suddenly, by your own power, raised up the repub- 
lic when in great distress and almost overthrown. What at 
that time did not the senate bestow upon you before you 
solicited it, more abundantly than you even desired, and with 
more frequency than you had ventured to hope? It gave 
you the forces, in order that it might have a defender armed 
with authority, not that it might arm an adversary with 
military power against itself It gave you the title of 
Imperator, after the army of the enemy ^ had been routed, 
assigning you honour, and not intending that that army, 
fleeing and routed, should confer such a title on you by its 
utter defeat. It voted you a statue in the forum, a place 
in the senate, the highest honours in the state, before you 
arrived at the legal age for them. If there is anything else 
which can be bestowed on you, let it add that ; but what is 
there beyond this that you can wish to receive? 

If, however, everything has been bestowed on you without 
any regard to your age, or to precedent, or even to the fact 
that you are a mortal man, why do you so cruelly, if un- 
grateful, so wickedly, if forgetful of the benefits heaped upon 
you, thus seek to cripple the power of the senate? Whither 
have we sent you? from whom are you returning? Against 
whom is it that we have armed you? Against whom is it 
that you are thinking of waging war? From whom are you 
leading away your army? Against whom are you marshalling 
your troops? Why is any enemy left? Why is a citizen re- 
garded as an enemy? Why, in the middle of your march, 
is your camp moved further from that of the enemy, and 
nearer to the city? 

Alas me! never really wise, though at one time vainly 
thought to be that which I was not, how greatly, Roman 
people, has your opinion of me deceived you ! Alas for my 
unfortunate and rash old age ! Alas for my grey hairs, dis- 
honoured at the end of a life deprived of judgment! It was 
I that incited the conscript fathers to the ruin of their 
country ; it was I that deceived the republic. It was I my- 
self that persuaded the senate to lay violent hands on its own 

^ The army of Antony, defeated at the battle of Mutina. 



CICERO TO OCTAVIUS. 139 

existencGj when I called you a Junonian^ youth, and the 
golden offspring of your mother. But the fates of your 
native land pointed you out as its future Paris, one who 
should lay waste the city with conflagration, Italy with war ; 
one who should pitch his camp in the temples of the immor- 
tal gods, and hold the senate m his camp. 

Alas ! for the miserable change in the affairs of the com- 
monwealth, so rapid and sudden, so different from all former 
circumstances ! What writer will ever exist of such genius, 
as to be able so to give an account of these events that they 
shall appear to be facts and not fictions? What reader will 
ever exist of so credulous a disposition, as not to think those 
things akin to fable which will then be handed down in our 
records with the greatest truth? For reflect that Antony 
was pronounced a public enemy; that the consul elect, the 
very father of the republic, was besieged by him ; that you 
went forth to deliver the consul and to crush the enemy; that 
the enemy was routed by you, and the consul delivered from 
his state of siege; then, that a short time afterwards that 
very enemy who had been routed was sent for by you, and 
united as a coheir with you to seize the goods of the Eoman 
people, as if the republic had been dead; that the consul 
, elect was again blockaded in a place where he defended him- 
self, not with walls, but with rivers and mountains : — Who 
will attempt to relate such events as these? Who will dare 
to believe them? It may indeed be permitted to a man to 
have erred once with impunity ; and a frank confession may 
be an excuse for an offender ; for I will speak the truth ;• I 
would rather, Antony, that we had not driven you away 
when you were our master, than that we should receive this 
youth in that character ! Not that any slavery is desirable, 
hut because the fortune of the slave is more or less dis- 
honourable according to the dignity of his master ; and of 
two evils, while we have to avoid the greater, we must choose 
the less. 

Antony, however, condescended to obtain by entreaty the 
things which he wished to appropriate ; you, Octavius, extort 
them by force. He applied for a province legitimately, as a 

^ Either because Mars, the god of war, was the son of Juno ; or 
because all the sons of Juno were godlike beings. Facciol. in voc. 
Junonius. 



140 CICERO TO OCTAVIUS. 

consul ; you coveted one, though invested with no office. He 
erected tribunals, and passed laws, to ensure the safety of the 
wicked; you do so to procure the destruction of the most 
virtuous. He protected the capital from bloodshed and from 
conflagration at the hands of slaves; you wish to destroy 
everything, and bury it under blood and flame. If he acted 
as a king, who assigned provinces to Cassius and the Bruti, 
and those other protectors of our name, what will he do who 
seeks to rob them of life? If he who drove them out of the 
city was a tyrant, what shall we call him who does not leave 
them even a place to live in exile? 

If, therefore, there is any sense at all in those buried re- 
mains of our ancestors ; if all sense and feeling is not con- 
sumed in the same fire with the body; w^hat, if they should 
ask what the Roman people are now doing, — what, I say, will 
any one of us reply who next takes his departure to those 
eternal mansions'? Or what account will those ancient heroes 
of our race, the Africani, the Fabii, the Paulli, and the 
Scipios, receive of their posterity? What will they fear 
concerning their country, which they themselves decorated 
with spoils and triumphs? Will any one venture to tell them 
that there is a certain young man, about eighteen years old, 
whose grandfather was a banker, whose father was a mere 
hack bail, each of them subsisting on precarious sources of 
livelihood ; the one continuing such practices till his old age, 
so that he cannot deny it ; the other beginning them in his 
boyhood, so that it is impossible for him not to confess it: 
that this youth is plundering and ravaging the republic ; a 
youth to w^hom no valour, no provinces reduced in war and 
annexed to the empire, no dignity on the part of his ances- 
tors, had attached the assistance of the powerful, but whose 
beauty, by infamous practices, had gained him money, and 
caused, in his person, a respectable name to be polluted with 
licentiousness; that he had collected the veteran gladiators 
of Julius, worn out with wounds and age, the needy relics of 
the school of Csesar, to take up arms again, surrounded with 
whom he might throw everything into confusion, show pity 
for no one, and live for himself alone; a youth who obtained 
possession of the republic as if it were a dowry settled on 
him at his marriage, or bequeathed to him by will? 

The two Decii will hear that those citizens are now slaves, 



I ... 



CICERO TO OCTAVIUS. 141 

to secure whose dominion over their enemies they devoted 
themselves to death as the only means of victory. Caius 
Marius will hear that we are under the orders of a licentious 
master ; he who would not keep even a private soldier of loose 
character in his army. Brutus will hear that that people, 
whom he himself in the first instance, and whom his posterity 
in a subsequent age, emancipated from kingly power, is now 
surrendered to slavery as the price of shameless debauchery. 
If this intelligence is conveyed to them by no one else, it 
shall certainly be soon conveyed to them by me; for if, 
while alive, I shall be unable to escape those evils, I have 
determined to flee from them by quitting life at the same 
time. 



CICERO'S DIALOGUES 

DE OEATORE; 

OR, 

OX THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 



V 



BOOK I. 

THE ARGUMENT. 

N^ These Dialogues were written, or at least published, by Cicero in the 
year B.C. 55, when he was about fifty -two years old, in the second 
consulship of Pompey and Crassus. He composed them at the re- 
quest of his brother Quintus, in order that he might set forth in 
better form, at a more advanced period of life, and after his long 
experience, those opinions on oratory which he had somewhat hastily 
and crudely advanced in his early years in his books on Invention. 
The Dialogues are supposed to have been held B.C. 91, when there 
were great contentions at Rome respecting the proposal of the 
tribune Marcus Livius Drusus to allow the senators, in common with 
the equites, to be judges on criminal trials. 
The persons present at the dialogue related in the first book are Lucius 
Licinius Crassus, Marcus Antonius, his friend, the two most eminent 
orators of their day; Quintus Mucins Scsevola, the father-in-law of 
Crassus, who was celebrated for his knowledge of the civil law, and 
from whom Cicero himself received instruction in his youth ; and two 
young men, Caius Amelius Cotta, and Publius Sulpicius Rufus, youths 
of much ability and promise, who were anxious to distinguish them- 
selves in oratory, and for whose instruction the precepts and obser- 
vations conveyed in the Dialogues are supposed to have been delivered. 
The scene of the conversations is the Tusculan villa of Crassus, to 
which he had retired from the tumults at Rome, and where he was 
joined by the rest of the party. 
\v The object of Cicero, in these books, was to set before his reader all 
that was important in the rhetorical treatises of Aristotle, Isocrates, 
and other ancient writers on oratory, divested of technicalities, and 
presented in a pleasing form. 
Crassus and Antonius, in the first book, discourse on all the qualifica- 
-v,^^ tions of a perfect orator, Crassus being the exponent of the senti- 
ments of Cicero himself, and maintaining that a complete orator 
must be acquainted with the whole circle of art and science. 
Antonius expresses his opinion that far less learning is required in 
the orator than Crassus supposes, and that, as universal knowledge 



C. I.] DE ORATORE. 143 

is unattainable, it will be well for him not to attempt to acquire too 
much, as he will thus only distract his thoughts, and render himself 
less capable of attaining excellence in speaking, than if, contenting 
himself with moderate acquirements, he devoted his attention chiefly 
to the improvement of his natural talents and qualifications for 
oratory. 
Cicero bestowed great consideration on the work, and had it long in 
hand. Ep. ad Att iv. 12. See also Ad Att. iv. 16; xiii. 19; Ad 
Fam. i. 9. 

I. As I frequently contemplate and call to mind the times 
of oldj those in general seem to me, brother Quintus, to have 
been supremely happy, who, while they were distinguished 
with honours and the glory of their actions in the best days-^ 
of the republic, were enabled to pursue such a course of Hfe, 
that they could continue either in employment without 
danger, or in retirement with dignity. To myself, also, there 
was a time^ when I thought that a season for relaxation, and 
for turning my thoughts again to the noble studies once 
pursued by both of us, would be fairly allowable, and be 
conceded by almost every one; if the infinite labour of 
forensic business and the occupations of ambition should be 
brought to a stand, either by the completion of my course of 
honours,^ or by the decline of age. Such expectations, with 
regard to my studies and designs, not only the severe cala- 
mities resulting from public occurrences, but a variety of 
our own private troubles,^ have disappointed. For in that 
period,^ which seemed likely to offer most quiet and tran- 
quillity, the greatest pressures of trouble and the most 
turbulent storms arose. Nor to our washes and earnest 
desires has the enjoyment of leisure been granted, to culti- 
vate and revive between ourselves those studies to which we 
have from early youth been addicted. For at our first 
entrance into life we fell amidst the perturbation^ of all 

^ After his consulship, A.u.c. 691, in the forty-fourth year of his age. 

^ There was a certain course of honours through which the Eomans 
passed. After attaining the quaestorship, they aspired to the sedileship, 
and then to the prcctorship and consulate. Cicero was augur, quaestor, 
sedile, praetor, consul, and proconsul of Asia. Proust. 

^ He refers to his exile, and the proposed union between Caesar and 
Pompey to make themselves masters ot the whole commonwealth; 
a matter to which he was unwilling to allude more plainly. Ellendt. 

* Qui locus. Quae vitae pars. Prouat. 

- The civil wais of Marius and Sylla. Ellendt. 



144 DB obatore; or, [b. l 

ancient order; in my consulship we were involved in strug- 
gles and the hazard of everything;^ and all the time since 
that consulship we have had to make opposition to those 
waves which, prevented by my efforts from causing a general 
destruction, have abundantly recoiled upon myself. Yet, 
amidst the difficulties of affairs, and the straitness of time, 
I shall endeavour to gratify my love of literature ; and what- 
ever leisure the malice of enemies, the causes of friends, or 
the public service will allow me, I shall chiefly devote to 
writing. As to you, brother, I shall not fail to obey your 
exhortations and entreaties; for no person can have more 
influence with me than you have both by authority and 
affection. 

II. Here the recollection of an old tradition must be 
revived in my mind, a recollection not indeed sufficiently 
distinct, but adapted, I think, so far to reply to what you 
ask, that you may understand what opinions the most famous 
and eloquent men entertained respecting the whole art of 
oratory. For you wish, as you have often said to me. (since 
what went abroad rough and incomplete^ from our own note- 
books, when we were boys or^young men, is scarcely worthy 
of my present standing in life, and that experience which I 
have gained from so many and such important causes as 
I have pleaded,) that something more polished and complete 
should be offered by me on the same subjects ; and you are 
at times inclined to dissent from me in our disputations on 
this matter; inasmuch as I consider eloquence to be the 
offspring of the accomplishments of the most learned men f 
but you think it must be regarded as independent of ele- 
gant learning, and attributable to a peculiar kind of talent 
and practice. 

Often, indeed, as I review in thought the greatest of man- 
kind, and those endowed with the highest abilities, it has 
appeared to me worthy of inquiry what was the cause tliat 
a greater number of persons have been admirable in every 
other pursuit than in speaking. For which way soever you 
direct your view in thought and contemplation, you will see 

^ Alluding to the conspiracy of Catiline. 
2 The two books De Inventione Ehetoricd. 

' Prudentissimorum. Equivalent to doctissimorum. Pearce. Some 
manuscripts have eruditissimorum. 



C. III. J ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 145 

numbers excellent in every species, not only of the humble, 
but even of the highest arts. Who, indeed, is there, that, if 
he would measure the qualifications of illustrious men, either 
by the usefulness or magnitude of their actions, would not 
prefer a general to an orator? Yet who doubts that we can , 
produce, from this city alone, almost innumerable excellent^ 
commanders, while we can number scarcely a few eminent in 
speaking? There have been many also in our own mengory, 
and more in that of our fathers, and even of our forefathers, 
who had abilities to rule and govern affairs of state by their 
counsel and wisdom; while for a long period no tolerable 
orators were found, or scarcely one in every age. But lest 
any one should think that the art of speaking may more 
justly be compared with other pursuits, which depend upon 
abstruse studies, and a varied field of learning, than with the 
merits of a general, or the wisdom of a prudent senator, let 
him turn his thoughts to those particular sciences themselves, 
and contemplate who and how many have flourished in them, 
as he will thus be best enabled to judge how great a scarcity 
of orators there is and has ever been. 

III. It does not escape your observation that what the > 
Greeks call philosophy, is esteemed by the most learned / 
men, the originator, as it were, and parent of all the arts ' 
which merit praise; philosophy, I say, in which it is dif&cult 
to enumerate how many distinguished men there have been, 
and of how great knowledge, variety, and comprehensiveness 
in their studies, men who have not confined their labours to 
one province separately, but have embraced whatever they 
could master either by scientific investigations, or by pro- 
cesses of reasoning. Who is ignorant in how great obscurity 
of matter, in how abstruse, manifold, and subtle an art they 
who are called mathematicians are engaged? Yet in that 
pursuit so many men have arrived at excellence, that not one 
seems to have applied himself to the science in earnest 
without attaining in it whatever he desired. Who has ever 
devoted himself wholly to music; who has ever given himself 
up to the learning which they profess who are called gramma- 
rians, without compassing, in knowledge and understanding, 
the whole substance and matter of those sciences, though 
almost boundless? Of all those who have engaged in the most 
liberal pursuits and departments of such sciences, I think I 

L 



X 



( 



146 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. I. 

may truly say that a smaller number of eminent poets have 
arisen than of men distinguished in any other branch of litera- 
ture; and in the whole multitude of the learned, among whom 
there rarely appears one of the highest excellence, there will 
be found, if you will but make a careful review of our own 
list and that of the Greeks, far fewer good orators than good 
poets. This ought to seem the more wonderful, as attain- 
ments in other sciences are drawn from recluse and hidden 
springs; but the whole art of speaking lies before us, and is 
concerned with common usage and the custom and language 
of all men ; so that while in other things that is most excel- 
lent which is most remote from the knowledge and under- 
standing of the illiterate, it is in speaking even the greatest 
of faults to vary from the ordinary kind of language, and the 
practice sanctioned by universal reason. 

IV. Yet it cannot be said with truth, either that more are 
devoted to the other arts, or that they are excited by greater 
pleasure, more abundant hope, or more ample rewards ; for to 
say nothing of Greece, which was always desirous to hold 
the first place in eloquence, and Athens, that inventress 
of all literature, in which the utmost power of oratory was 
both discovered and brought to perfection, in this very city 
of ours, assuredly, no studies were ever pursued with more 
earnestness than those tending to the acquisition of elo- 
quence. For when our empire over all nations was esta- 
blished, and after a period of peace had secured tranquillity, . 
there was scarcely a youth ambitious of praise who did not 
think that he must strive, with all his endeavours, to attain 
the art of speaking. For a time, indeed, as being ignorant 
of all method, and as thinking there was no course of ex- 
ercise for them, or any precepts of art, they attained what 
they could by the single force of genius and thought. But 
afterwards, having heard the Greek orators, and gained an 
acquaintance with Greek literature, and procured instruc- 
tors, our countrymen were inflamed with an incredible 
passion for eloquence. The magnitude, the variety, the mul- 
titude of all kind of causes, excited them to such a degree, 
that to that learning which each had acquired by his indi- 
vidual study, frequent practice^, which was superior to the 
precepts of all masters, was at once added. There were then, 
lis there are also now, the highest inducements offered for the 



C. v.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 147 

cultivation of this study, in regard to public favour, wealth, 
and dignity. The abilities of our countrymen (as we may 
judge from many particulars,) far excelled those of the men 
of every other nation. For which reasons, who would not 
justly wonder that in the records of all ages, times, and states, 
so small a number of orators should be found 1 

But the art of eloquence is something greater, and col- 
lected from more sciences and studies, than people imagine. 
V. For who can suppose that, amid the greatest multitude of 
students, the utmost abundance of masters, the most emi- 
nent geniuses among men, the infinite variety of causes, 
the most ample rewards offered to eloquence, there is any 
other reason to be found for the small number of orators 
than the incredible magnitude and difficulty of the art-1 A 
knowledge of a vast number of things is necessary, without 
which volubility of words is empty and ridiculous ; speech 
itself is to be formed, not merely by choice, but by carefu^ 
construction of words ; and all the emotions of the mind, 
which nature has given to man, must be intimately known ; 
for all the force and art of speaking must be employed in 
allaying or exciting the feelings of those who listen. To this 
must be added a certain portion of grace and wit, learning 
worthy of a well-bred man, and quickness and brevity in 
replying as well as attacking, accompanied with a refined 
decorum and urbanity. Besides, the whole of antiquity and 
a multitude of examples is to be kept in the memory ; nor is 
the knowledge of laws in general, or of the civil law in par- 
ticular, to be neglected. • And why need I add any remarks 
on delivery itself, which is to be ordered by action of 
body, by gesture, by look, and by modulation and varia- 
tion of the voice, the great power of which, alone and in 
itself, the comparatively trivial art of actors and the stage 
proves, on which though all bestow their utmost labour to 
form their look, voice, and gesture, who knows not how few 
there are, and have ever been, to whom we can attend with 
patience ? What can I say of that repository for all things, 
the memory, which, unless it be made the keeper of the 
matter and words that are the fruits of thought and inven- 
tion, all the talents of the orator, we see, though they be 
of the highest degree of excellence, will be of no avail ? Let 
us then cease to wonder what is the cause of the scarcity of 

l2 



7 



148 i>E oratore; or, [b. i. 

good speakers, since eloquence results from all those quali- 
fioationSj in each of which singly it is a great merit to labour 
successfully; and let us rather exhort our children, and others 
whose glory and honour is dear to us, to contemplate in their 
minds the full magnitude of the object, and not to trust that 
they can reach the height at which they aim, by the aid of the 
precepts, masters, and exercises, that they are all now follow- 
ing, but to understand that they must adopt others of a 
different character. 

VI. In my opinion, indeed, no man can be an orator 
^ pobisessed of every praiseworthy accomplishment, unless he 
) has attained the knowledge of everything important, and of 
all liberal arts, for his language must be ornate and copious 
from knowledge, since, unless there be beneath the surface 
matter understood and felt by the speaker, oratory becomes 
an empty and almost puerile flow of words. Yet I will 
not lay so great a burden upon orators, especially our own, 
amid so many occupations of public and private life, as 
to think it allowable for them to be ignorant of nothing; 
although the qualifications of an orator, and his very pro- 
fession of speaking well, seem to undertake and promise that 
he can discourse gracefully and copiously on whatever sub- 
ject is proposed to him. But because this, I doubt not, will 
appear to most people an immense and infinite undertaking, 
and because I see that the Greeks, men amply endowed not 
only with genius and learning, but also with leisure and appli- 
cation, have made a kind of partition of the arts, and have 
not singly laboured in the whole circle of oratory, but have 
separated from the other parts of rhetoric that department 
of eloquence which is used in the forum on trials or in deli- 
berations, and have left this species only to the orator ; I 
shall not embrace in these books more than has been attri- 
buted to this kind of speaking^ by the almost unanimous 
consent of the greatest men, after much examination and 
discussion of the subject ; and I shall repeat, not a series of 
precepts drawn from the infancy of our old and boyish learn- 
ing, but matters which I have heard were formerly argued 
in a discussion among some of our countrymen who were 
of the highest eloquence, and of the first rank in every kind 

^ Deliberative and judicial oratory ; omitting the epideictic or demon- 
strative kind. 



C. VII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 14:9 

of dignity. Not that I contemn the instructions which the 
Greek rhetoricians and teachers have left us, but, as they are 
already public, and within the reach of all, and can neither 
be set forth more elegantly, nor explained more clearly by 
my interpretation, you will, I think, excuse me, my brother, 
if I prefer to the Greeks the authority of those to whom the 
utmost merit in eloquence has been allowed by our own 
countrymen. 

VII. At the time, then, when the consul Philippus was vehe- 
mently inveighing against the cause of the nobility, and the 
tribuneship of Drusus, undertaken to support the authority 
of the senate, seemed to be shaken and weakened, I was told, 
I remember, that Lucius Crassus, as if for the purpose of 
collecting his thoughts, betook himself, dmdng the days of the 
Roman games, to his Tusculan country-seat, whither also 
Quintus Mucins, who had been his father-in-law, is said to have 
xjome at the same time, as well as Marcus Antonius, a sharer 
in all the political proceedings of Crassus, and united in the 
closest friendship with him. There went out with Crassus him- 
self two young men besides, great friends of Drusus, youths 
of whom our ancestors then entertained sanguine hopes that 
they would maintain the dignity of their order ; Caius 
Cotta, who was then a candidate for the tribuneship of the 
people, and Publius Sulpicius, who was thought likely to 
stand for that office in due course. These, on the first day, 
conferred much together until very late in the evening, 
concerning the condition of those times, and the whole com- 
monwealth, for which purpose they had met. Cotta re- 
peated to me many things then prophetically lamented and 
noticed by the three of consular dignity in that conversation \ 
so that no misfortune afterwards happened to the state which 
they had not perceived to be hanging over it so long before . 
and he said that, when this conversation was finished, there 
was such politeness shown by Crassus, that after they had 
bathed and sat down to table, all the seriousness of the former 
discourse was banished ; and there appeared so much plea- 
santry in him, and so much agreeableness in his humour 
that though the early part of the day might seem to have 
been passed by them in the senate-house, the banquet showed 
all the delights of the Tusculan villa. 

But on the next day, when the older part of the company 



150 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. I. 

had taken sufficient repose, and were come to their walk, 
he told me that Scsevola, after taking two or three turns, 
said, *' Why should not we, Crassus, imitate Socrates in the 
Phaedrus of Plato '? ^ for this plane-tree of yours has put me 
in mind of it, which diffuses its spreading boughs to over- 
shade this place, not less widely than that did whose covert 
Socrates sought, and which seems to me to have grown not 
so much from the rivulet which is described, as from the 
language of Plato : and what Socrates, with the hardest of 
feet, used to do, that is, to throw himself on the grass, while 
he delivered those sentiments which philosophers say were 
uttered divinely, may surely, with more justice, be allowed to 
my feet." Then Crassus rejoined, "Nay, we will yet further 
consult your convenience ;" and called for cushions ; when 
they all, said Cotta, sat down on the seats that were under 
the plane-tree. 

VIII. There, (as Cotta used to relate,) in order that the 
minds of them all might have some relaxation from their 
former discourse, Crassus introduced a conversation on the 
study of oratory. After he had commenced in this manner. 
That indeed Sulpicius and Cotta did not seem to need his 
exhortations, but rather both to deserve his praise, as they 
had already attained such powers as not only to excel their 
equals in age, but to be admitted to a comparison with their 
seniors; "Nor does anything seem to me," he added, "more 

\ noble than to be able to fix the attention of assemblies of 
^en by speaking, to fascinate their minds, to direct their 
passions to whatever object the orator pleases, and to dissuade 
them from whatsoever he desires. This particular art has 
constantly flourished above all others in every free state, and 
^especially in those which have enjoyed peace and tranquillity, 
"and has ever exercised great power. For what is so admirable 
as that, out of an infinite multitude of men, there should 
arise a single individual, who can alone, or with only a few 
others, exert effectually that power which nature has granted 
to all ? Or what is so pleasant to be heard and understood as 
1 P. 229. Compare Ruhnken ad Lex. Timaei, v. a/ixcpiAacpSs, and 
Manutius ad Cic. Div. ii. 11, p. 254. Cicero aptly refers to that 
dialogue of Plato, because much is said about eloquence in it. The 
plane-tree was greatly admired by the Romans for its wide-spreading 
shade. See I. H. Vossius ad Virg. Georg. ii. 70 ; Plin. H. N. xii. 1; 
xvii. 15 ; Hor. Od. ii. 15. 5; Gronov. Obss. i. 5. Ellendt, 



C. IX.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 151 

an oration adorned and polished with wise thoughts and 
weighty expressions ? Or what is so striking, so astonishing, 
as that the tumults of the people, the religious feelings of 
judges, the gravity of the senate, should be swayed by the speech 
of one man ? Or what, moreover, is so kingly, so liberal, so 
munificent, as to give assistance to the suppliant, to raise 
the afflicted, to bestow security, to deliver from dangers, to 
maintain men in the rights of citizenship ? What, also, is 
so necessary as to keep arms always ready, with which you 
may either be protected yourself, or defy the malicious, or 
avenge yourself when provoked 1 Or consider, (that you 
may not always contemplate the forum, the benches, the 
rostra, and the senate,) what can be more delightful in leisure, 
or more suited to social intercourse, than elegant conversa- 
tion, betraying no want of intelligence on any subject 1 For 
it is by this one gift that we are most distinguished from 
brute animals, that we converse together, and can express our 
thoughts by speech. Who therefore would not justly make 
this an object of admiration, and think it worthy of his utmost 
exertions, to surpass mankind themselves in that single ex- 
cellence by which they claim their superiority over brutes'? 
But, that we may notice the most important point of all, 
what other power could either have assembled mankind, 
when dispersed, into one place, or have brought them from 
wild and savage life to the present humane and civilized 
state of society; or, when cities were established, have 
described for them laws, judicial institutions, and rights ? 
And that I may not mention more examples, which are almost 
without number, I will conclude the subject in one short 
sentence : for I consider, that by the judgment and wisdom 
of the perfect orator, not only his own honour, but that of 
many other individuals, and the welfare of the whole state, 
are principally upheld. Go on, therefore, as you are doing, 
young men, and apply earnestly to the study in which you 
are engaged, that you may be an honour to yourselves, an 
advantage to your friends, and a benefit to the republic." 

IX. Scsevola then observed with courtesy, as was always 

his manner, " I agree with Crassus as to other points (that 

I may not detract from the art or glory of Lselius, my 

father-in-law, or of my son-in-law here),^ but I am afraid, 

^ Crassiis. 



152 DE oratore; or, [b. i. 

Crassus, that I cannot grant you these two points ; one, that 
states were, as you said, originally established, and have often 
been preserved, by orators ; the other, that, setting aside the 
forum, the assemblies of the people, the courts of judicature, 
and the senate-house, the orator is, as you pronounced, accom- 
plished in every subject of conversation and learning. For 
who will concede to you, either that mankind, dispersed 
originally in mountains and woods, enclosed themselves in 
towns and walls, not so much from being convinced by the 
counsels of the wise, as from being charmed by the speeches 
of the eloquent '^ Or that other advantages, arising either 
from the establishment or preservation of states, were settled, 
not by wise and brave men, but by fluent and elegant 
speakers'? Does Romulus seem to you to have assembled 
the shepherds, and those that flocked to him from all parts, 
or to have formed marriages with the Sabines, or to have 
repelled the power of the neighbouring people, by eloquence, 
and not by counsel and eminent wisdom 1 Is there any trace 
of eloquence apparent in Numa Pompilius, in Servius Tullius, 
or in the rest of our kings, from whom we have many excel- 
lent regulations for maintaining our government ? After the 
kings were expelled (though we see that their expulsion was 
eflected by the mind of Lucius Brutus, and not by his tongue), 
we not perceive that all the subsequent transactions are full 
of wise counsel, but- destitute of all mixture of eloquence? 
But if I should be inclined to adduce examples from our 
own and other states, I could cite more instances of mischief 
than of benefit done to public affairs by men of eminent 
eloquence; but, to omit others, I think, Crassus, that the 
most eloquent men I ever heard, except you two,^ were the 
Sempronii, Tiberius and Caius, whose father, a prudent and 
grave man, but by no means eloquent, on several other occa- 
sions, but especially when censor, was of the utmost service 
to the republic ; and he, not by any faultless flow of speech, 
but by a word and a nod, transferred the freedmen into the 
city tribes;^ and, if he had not done so, we should now have 

^ Crassus and Antonius. 

^ Livy, xlv. 15, says that the freedmen were previously dispersed 
among all the four city tribes, and that Gracchus included them all in 
the Esquiline tribe. The object was to allow the freedmen as little 
influence as possible in voting. 



C. X.] ox THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 153 

no republic, ^vhich we still maintain with difficulty; but his 
sons, who were eloquent, and qualified for speaking by all the 
helps of nature and of learning, having found the state in 
a most flourishing condition, both through the counsels of 
their father, and the arms of their ancestors, brought their 
country, by means of their oratory, that most excellent ruler 
of states as you call it, to the verge of ruin. 

X. " Were our ancient laws, and the customs of our an- 
cestors; were the auspices, over which you, Crassus, and 
I preside with great security to the republic ; were the reli- 
gious rites and ceremonies; were the civil laws, the know- 
ledge of which has long prevailed in our family, (and without 
any praise for eloquence.) either invented, or understood, or 
in any way ordered by the tribe of orators 1 I can remember 
that Servius Galba, a man of godlike power in speaking, as 
well as Marcus JEmilius Porcina, and Cneius Carbo himself, 
whom you defeated when you were but a youth,^ was igno- 
rant of the laws, at a loss in the practices of our ancestors, 
and unlearned in civil jurisprudence; and, except you, Crassus, 
who, rather from your own inclination to study, than because 
it w^as any peculiar business of an orator, have learned the 
civil law from us, as I am sometimes ashamed to say, this 
generation of ours is ignorant of law. 

^' But what you assumed, as by a law of your own, in 
the last part of your speech, that an orator is able to speak 
fluently on any subject, I would not, if I were not here in 
your own domain, tolerate for a moment, but would head 
a party who should either oppose you by an interdict,^ or 
summon you to contend with them at law, for having so 
unceremoniously invaded the possessions of others. In the 
first placCj all the Pythagoreans, and the followers of Demo- 
critus, would institute a suit against you, with the rest of the 
natural philosophers, each in his own department, men who 

^ Caius Papirius Carbo, after having been a very seditions tribune, 
went over in his consulship to the side of the patricians, and highly 
extolled Lucius Opimius for killing Caius Gracchus. But, at the ex- 
piration of his consulship, being impeached by Crassus, on what grounds 
we do not know, he put himself to death. Cic. Orat. iii. 20, 74 ; 
Brut. 27, 103. Ellendt. 

2 An edict of the praetor forbidding something to be done, in con- 
tradistinction to a decree, which ordered something to be done. Ellendt 
refers to Gaius, iv. 139, 160. 



154: DE ORATORE j OR, [b. I. 

are elegant and powerful speakers, with whom you could not 
contend on equal terms. ^ Whole troops of other philosophers 
would assail you besides, even down from Socrates their 
origin and head, and would convince you that you had 
learned nothing about good and evil in life, nothing about 
the passions of the mind, nothing about the moral conduct of 
mankind, nothing about the proper course of life ; they would 
show you that you have made no due inquiry after know- 
ledge, and that you know nothing ; and, when they had made 
an attack upon you altogether, then every sect would bring 
its separate action against you. The Academy would press 
you, and, w^hatever you asserted, force you to deny it. Our 
friends the Stoics would hold you entangled in the snares of 
their disputations and questions. The Peripatetics would prove 
that those very aids and ornaments to speaking, which you 
consider the peculiar property of the orators, must be sought 
from themselves; and they would show you that Aristotle 
and Theophrastus have written not only better, but also far 
more copiously, on these subjects, than all the masters of the 
art of speaking. I say nothirig of the mathematicians; the 
grammarians, the musicians, with whose sciences this art of 
speaking of yours is not connected by the least affinity. I 
think, therefore, Crassus, that such great and numerous pro- 
fessions ought not to be made. What you can effect is suf- 
ficiently great; namely, that in judicial matters the cause 
which you plead shall seem the better and more probable; 
that in public assemblies, and in delivering opinions, your 
oratory shall have the most power to persuade; that, finally, 
you shall seem to the wise to speak with eloquence, and even to 
the simple to speak with truth. If you can do more than this, 
it will appear to me that it is not the orator, but Crassus 
himself that effects it by the force of talents peculiar to 
himself, and not common to other orators." 

XI. Crassus then replied, " I am not ignorant, Scsevola, 
that things of this sort are commonly asserted and maintained 
among the Greeks; for I was an auditor of their greatest 

^ Justo Sacramento. The sacramentmn was a deposit of a certain sum 
of money laid down by two parties who were going to law; and 
when the decision was made, the victorious party received his money 
back, while that of the defeated party went into the public treasury. 
Varro, L. L. v. 180 



CXI.] ox THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 155 

men, when I came to Athens as quaestor from Macadonia/ 
and when the Academy was in a flourishing state, as it was 
represented in those days, for Charmadas, and Chtomachus, 
and ^schines were in possession of it. There was also Me- 
trodorus, who, with the others, had been a diligent hearer of 
the famous Carneades himself, a man beyond all others, as 
they told me, a most spirited and copious speaker. Mnesar- 
chus, too, was in great esteem, a hearer of your friend 
Pansetius, and Diodorus, a scholar of Critolaus the Peri- 
patetic; and there were many other famous men besides, 
highly distinguished in philosophy, by all of whom, with one 
voice as it were, I observed that the orator was repelled from 
the government of states, excluded from all learning and 
knowledge of great affairs, and degraded and thrust down 
into the courts of justice and petty assemblies, as into a 
workshop. But I neither assented to those men, nor to the 
originator of these disputations, and by far the most eloquent 
of them all, the eminently grave and oratorical Plato ; whose 
Gorgias I then diligently read over at Athens with Char- 
madas ; from which book I conceived the highest admiration 
of Plato, as he seemed to me to prove himself an eminent 
orator, even in ridiculing orators. A controversy indeed 
on the word orator has long disturbed the minute Grecians, 
who are fonder of argument than of truth. For if any one 
pronounces him to be an orator who can speak fluently only 
on law in general, or on judicial questions, or before the 
people, or in the senate, he must yet necessarily grant and 
allow him a variety of talents; for he cannot treat even of 
these matters with sufficient skill and accuracy without great 
attention to all public affairs, nor Avithout a knowledge of 
laws, customs, and equity, nor without understanding the 
nature and manners of mankind ; and to him who knows these 
things, without which no one can maintain even the most 
minute points in judicial pleadings, how much is wanting 
of the knowledge even of the most important affairs? But if 
you allow nothing to belong to the orator but to speak aptly, 
ornately, and copiously, how can he even attain these qualities 
without that knowledge which you do not allow him'? for 
there can be no true merit in speaking, unless what is said is 

^ Crassus was quaestor in Asia, a.u.c. 645, and, on his return, at the 
expiration of his office, passed through Macedonia. Eilendt. 



Id 6 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. I. 

thoroughly understood by him who says it. If, therefore, the 
natural philosopher Democritus spoke with elegance, as he is 
reported to have spoken, and as it appears to me that he did 
speak, the matter on which he spoke belonged to the philosopher, 
but the graceful array of words is to be ascribed to the orator. 
And if Plato spoke divinely upon subjects most remote from 
civil controversies, as I grant that he did; if also Aristotle, 
and Theophrastus, and Carneades, were eloquent, and spoke 
with sweetness and grace on those matters which they dis- 
cussed; let the subjects on which they spoke belong to other 
studies, but their speech itself, surely, is the peculiar offspring 
of that art of which we are now discoursing and inquiring. 
For we see that some have reasoned on the same subjects 
jejunely and drily, as Chrysippus, whom they celebrate as the 
acutest of philosophers; nor is he on this account to be 
thought to have been deficient in philosophy, because he did 
not gain the talent of speaking from an art which is foreign 
to philosophy. 

XII. " Where then lies the difference ? Or by what 
term will you discriminate the fertility and copiousness of 
speech in those whom I have named, from the barrenness 
of those who use not this variety and elegance of phrase ] 
One thing there will certainly be, which those who speak well 
will exhibit as their own ; a graceful and elegant style, dis- 
tinguished by a peculiar artifice and polish. But this kind 
• of diction, if there be not matter beneath it clear and 
j intelligible to the speaker, must either amount to nothing, or 
be received with ridicule by all who hear it. For what savours 
so much of madness, as the empty sound of words, even the 
^ (^ ,, choicest and most elegant, when there is no sense or knowledge 
contained in them 1 Whatever be the subject of a speech, 
therefore, in whatever art or branch of science, the orator, if 
he has made himself master of it, as of his client's cause, 
will speak on it better and more elegantly than even the 
very originator and author of it can.^ If indeed any 
one shall say that there are certain trains of thought and 
reasoning properly belonging to orators, and a knowledge of 
certain things [circumscribed within the limits of the forum, 
I will confess that our common speech is employed about 
these matters chiefly ; but yet there are many things, in 
^ See Quintilian, ii. 21. 



C. XIII.] Ox. _ " CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 157 

these very topics, which those masters of rhetoric, as they are 
called, neither teach nor understand. For who s ignorant 
that the highest power of an orator consists in exciting the 
minds of men to anger, or to hatred, or to grief, or in recall- 
ing them from these more violent emotions to gentleness and 
compassion 1 which power will never be able to effect its ob- 
ject by eloquence, unless in him who has obtained a thorough 
insight into the nature of mankind, and all the passions of 
humanity, and those causes by which our minds are either 
impelled or restrained. But ail these are thought to belong 
to the philosophers, nor will the orator, at least with my con- 
sent, ever deny that such is the case ; but when he has 
conceded to them the knowledge of things, since they are 
willing to exhaust their labours on that alone, he will assume 
to himself the treatment of oratory, which without that yy 
knowledge is nothing. For the proper concern of an orator/y 
as I have already often said, is language of power and/ 
elegance accommodated to the feelings and understandings of 
mankind. 

XIII. " On these matters I confess that Aristotle and Theo- 
phrastus have written.^ But consider, Scsevola, whether this 
is not wholly in my favour. For I do not borrow from them 
what the orator possesses in common with them ; but they 
allow that what they say on these subjects belongs to oratory. 
Their other treatises, accordingly, they distinguish by the 
name of the science on which each is written ; their treatises 
on oratory they entitle and designate as books of rhetoric. 
For when, in their discussions, (as often happens,) such topics 
present themselves as require them to speak of the immortal 
gods, of piety, of concord, of friendship, of the common 
rights of their fellow-citizens, or those of all mankind, of the 
law of nations, of equity, of temperance, of greatness of 
mind, of every kind of virtue, all the academies and schools 
of philosophy, I imagine, will cry out that all these subjects 
are their property, and that no particle of them belongs to 
the orator. But when I have given them liberty to reason 
on all these subjects in corners to amuse their leisure, I shall 
give and assign to the orator his part, which is, to set forth 
with full poAver and attraction the very same topics which 
they discuss in such tame and bloodless phraseology. These 

^ Though they are philosophers, and not orators or rhetoricians. 



158 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. I. 

points I tlten discussed with the philosophers in person at 
Athens, for Marcus Marcellus, our countryman, who is now 
curule sedile, obhged me to do so, and he would certainly 
have taken part in our present conversation, were he not now 
celebrating the public games ; for he was then a youth mar- 
vellously given to these studies. 

''Of the institution of laws, of war, of peace, of alliances, 
of tributes, of the civil law as relating to various ranks and 
ages respectively,^ let the Greeks say, if they will, that Ly- 
curgus or Solon (although I think that these should be 
enrolled in the number of the eloquent) had more knowledge 
than Hypereides or Demosthenes, men of the highest accom- 
plishments and refinement in oratory ; or let our countrymen 
prefer, in this sort of knowledge, the Decemviri who wrote 
the Twelve Tables, and who must have been wise men, to 
Servius Galba, and your father-in-law Lselius, who are al- 
lowed to have excelled in the glorious art of speaking. I, 
indeed, shall never deny that there are some sciences pecu- 
liarly well understood by those who have applied their whole 
study to the knowledge and consideration of them ; but the 
accomplished and complete orator I shall call him who can 
speak on all subjects with variety and copiousness. XIV. For 
cften in those causes which all acknowledge properly to 
belong to orators, there is something to be drawn forth and 
adopted, not from the routine of the Forum, which is the 
only knowledge that you grant to the orator, but from some 
of the more obscure sciences. I ask whether a speech can be 
made for or against a general, without an acquaintance with 
military affairs, or often without a knowledge of certain 
inland and maritime countries'? whether a speech can be 
made to the people about passing or rejecting laws, or in the 
senate on any kind of public transactions, without the greatest 
knowledge and judgment in political matters'? whether a 
speech can be adapted to excite or calm the thoughts and 

^ De jure civili generatim in ordines cetatesqiie descHpto. Instead of 
civili, the old reading was civium, in accordance with which Lambinus 
altered descripto into descripto7'um. Civili was an innovation of Ernesti, 
which Ellendt condemns, and retains civium; observing that Cicero 
means jura civium publica singulis ordinibus et cetatibus assignata. " By 
ordines," says Ernesti, " are meant patricians and plebeians, senators, 
knights, and classes in the census; by cetates, younger paid older 
persons." 



C. XV.] ox THE CHABACTER OF THE ORATOR. 159 

passions (which alone is a great business of the orator) 
without a most diligent examination of all those doctrines 
which are set forth on the nature and manners of men by the 
philosophers ] I do not know whether I may not be less 
successful in maintaining what I am going to say; but I 
shall not hesitate to speak that which I think. Physics, and 
mathematics, and those other things which you just now 
decided to belong to other sciences, belong to the peculiar 
knowledge of those who profess them; but if any one would 
illustrate those arts by eloquence, he must have recourse to 
the power of oratory. Nor, if, as is said, Philo,^ the famous 
architect, who built an arsenal for the Athenians, gave that 
people an eloquent account of his work, is it to be imagined 
that his eloquence proceeded from the art of the architect, 
but from that of the orator. Or, if our friend Marcus Antonius 
had had to speak for Hermodorus- on the subject of dock- 
building, he would have spoken, when he had. learned the 
case fi"om Hermodorus, with elegance and copiousness, drawn 
from an art quite unconnected with dock-building. And 
Asclepiades,^ whom we knew^ as a physician and a fi^iend, did 
not, when he excelled others of his profession in eloquence, 
employ, in his graceful elocution, the art of physic, but that 
of oratory. What Socrates used to say, that all men ar^i^^y 
sufficiently eloquent in that which they understand, is very -^ 
plausible, but not true. It would have been nearer truth to 
say, that no man can be eloquent on a subject that he does 
not understand; and that, if he understands a subject ever' 
so well, -but is ignorant how to form and polish his speech, 
he cannot express himself eloquently even about what he does 
understand. 

XY. '' If, therefore, any one desires to define and compre- 
hend the whole and peculiar power of an orator, that man, in 
my opinion, will be an orator, worthy of so great a name, 
who, whatever subject comes before him, and requires rheto- 
rical, elucidation, can speak on it judiciously, in set form, 

^ He is frequently mentioned by the ancients ; the passages relating 
to him have been collected by Junius de Pictura in Catal. Artif. 
Ernesti. See Plin. H. N. vii. 38 ; Plut. Syll. c. 14 ; Yal. Max. vii. 12. 

^ A Roman shipbuilder. See Tumeb. Advers. xi. 2. 

^ See Plin. H. X. vii. 37. Celsus often refers to his authority as the 
founder of a new party. Ellendt. 




160 DE oratore; or, [b. i. 

elegantly, and from memory, and with a certain dignity of 
action. But if the phrase which I have used, ' on whatevei 
subject,' is thought by any one too comprehensive, let him 
retrench and curtail as much of it as he pleases ; but this 
I will maintain, that though the orator be ignorant of what 
belongs to other arts and pursuits, and understands only 
what concerns the discussions and practice of the Forum, yet 
■^he has to speak on those arts, he will, when he has learned 
what pertains to any of them from persons who understand 
them, discourse upon them much better than the very persons 
of whom those arts form the peculiar province. Thus, if our 
friend Sulpicius have to speak on military affairs, he will 
inquire about them of my kinsman Caius Marius,^ and when he 
has received information, will speak upon them in such a' 
manner, that he shall seem to Marius to understand them 
better than himself Or if he has to speak on the civil law, 
he will consult with you, and will excel you, though eminently 
wise and learned in it, in speaking on those very points which 
he shall have learned from yourself Or if any subject pre- 
sents itself, requiring him to speak on the nature and vices of 
men, on desire, on moderation, on continence, on grief, on 
death, perhaps, if he thinks proper, (though the orator ought 
to have a knowledge of these things,) he will consult with 
Sextus Pompeius,^ a man learned in philosophy. But this he 
will certainly accomplish, that, of whatever matter he gains 
a knowledge, or from whomsoever, he will speak upon it 
much more elegantly than the very person from whom he 
gained the knowledge. But, since philosophy is distinguished 
into three parts, inquiries into the obscurities of physics, the 
subtilties of logic, and the knowledge of life and manners, let 
us, if Sulpicius will listen to me, leave the two former, and 
consult our ease; but unless we have a knowledge of the 
third, which has always been the province of the orator, we 

^ The son of the great Caius Marius, seven times consul, had married 
Mucia, the daughter of the augur Scsevola. In Cicero's Oration for 
Balbus, also, c. 21, 49, where the merits of that eminent commander 
are celebrated, Crassus is called his affinis, relation by marriage. 
Henrichsen, 

^ The uncle of Cneius Pompey the Great, who had devoted excel- 
lent talents to the attainment of a thorough knowledge of civil law, 
geometry, and the doctrines of the Stoics. See Cic. Brut. 47 ; Philipp. 
xii. 11 ; Beier, ad Off. i. 6, 19. Ellendt, 



C. XVI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 161 

shall leave him nothing in which he can distinguish himself. 
The part of philosophy, therefore, regarding life and manners, 
must be thoroughly mastered by the orator; other subjects, 
even if he has not learned them, he will be able, whenever 
there is occasion, to adorn by his eloquence, if they are brought 
before him and made known to him. 

XVI. ^^For if it is allowed amongst the learned that Aratus, 
a man ignorant of astronomy, has treated of heaven and the 
constellations in extremely polished and excellent verses j if 
K'icander,^ of Colophon, a man totally unconnected with the 
country, has written well on rural affairs, with the aid of 
poetical talent, and not from understanding husbandry, what 
reason is there why an orator should not speak most elo- 
quently on those matters of which he shall have gained 
a knowledge for a certain purpose and occasion? For the. 
poet is nearly allied to the orator; being somewhat more 
restricted in numbers, but less restrained in the choice of 
words, yet in many kinds of embellishment his rival and 
almost equal; in one respect, assuredly, nearly the same, 
that he circumscribes or bounds his jurisdiction by no limits, 
but reserves to himself full right to range wherever he 
pleases with the same ease and liberty. For why did you 
say, Scsevola,^ that you would not endure, unless you were in 
my domain, my assertion, that the orator ought to be accom- 
plished in every style of speaking, and in every part of 
polite learning? I should certainly not have said this if I 
had thought myself to be the orator whom I conceive in my 
imagination. But, as Caius Lucilius used frequently to say 
(a man not very friendly to you,^ and on that account less 
familiar with me than he could wish, but a man of learning 
and good breeding), I am of this opinion, that no one is to"! 
be numbered among orators who is not thoroughly accom- \ 

.^ Kicander, a physician, grammarian, and poet, flourislied in the 
time of Attains, the second king of Pergamus, about fifty years before 
Christ. His Theriaca and Alexipharmaca are extant ; his Georgica, to 
;which Cicero here alludes, has perished. Henrichsen. 

^ See c. X. 

^ It is Lucilius the Satirist that is meant. "V^^lat cause there had 
been for unfriendliness between him and Scpevola is unknown ; perhaps 
be might have spoken too freely, or made some satirical reniaik on the 
accusation of Scfevola by Albucius for bribery, on which there are 
some verses in b. iii. c. 43.- Ellendt. 



162 DE ORATOREj OR, [b. I. 

plished in all branches of knowledge requisite for a man of 
good breeding; and though we may not put forward such 
Knowledge in conversation, yet it is apparent, and indeed 
evident, whether we are destitute of it, or have acquired it ; 
as those who play at tennis do not exhibit, in playing, the 
gestures of the paleestra, but their movements indicate whe- 
ther they have learned those exercises or are unacquainted 
with them; and as those who shape out anything, though 
they do not then exercise the art of painting, yet make it 
clear whether they can paint or not ; so in orations to courts 
of justice, before the people, and in the senate, although 
other sciences have no pecidiar place in them, yet is it easily 
proved whether he who speaks has only been exercised in 
the parade of declamation, or has devoted himself to oratory 
after having been instructed in all liberal knowledge." 

XVII. Then Scsevola, smiling, said : ^' I will not struggle 
with you any longer, Crassus ; for you have, by some artifice, 
made good what you asserted against me, so as to grant me 
whatever I refused to allow to the orator, and yet so as to 
wrest from me those very things again I know not how, and 
to transfer them to the orator as his property.^ When 
I went as praetor to Rhodes, and communicated to Apol- 
lonius, that famous instructor in this profession, what I had 
learned from Paneetius, Apollonius, as was his manner, ridi- 
culed these matters,^ threw contempt upon philosophy, and 
made many other observations with less wisdom than wit; 
but your remarks were of such a kind as not to express con- 
tempt for any arts or sciences, but to admit that they are all 
attendants and handmaids of the orator; and if ever any one 
should comprehend them all, and the same person should add 
to that knowledge the powers of supremely elegant oratory, 
I cannot but say that he would be a man of high distinction 

^ You granted me all that I desired when you said that all arts and 
sciences belong, as it were, respectively to those who have invented, or 
profess, or study them ; . . . . but when you said that those arts and 
sciences are necessary to the orator, and that he can speak upon them, 
if he wishes, with more elegance and effect than those who have made 
them their peculiar study, you seemed to take them all from me again, 
and to transfer them to the orator as his own property. Proust. 

2 Orellius reads Hcec — irrisit, where the reader will observe that the 
pronoun is governed by the verb. Ellendt and some others read Qucb 
instead of Hcec. Several alterations have been proposed, but none of 
them bring the sentence into a satisfactory state. 



C. SVlII.j ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. lf^3 

and worthy of the greatest admiration. But if there should 
be such a one, or indeed has ever been, or can possibly be, 
you alone would be the person; who, not only in my judg- 
ment, but in that of all men, have hardly left to other 
orators (I speak it with deference to this company) any glory 
to be acquired. If, however, there is in yourself no deficiency 
of knowledge pertaining to judicial and political affairs, 
and yet you have not mastered all that additional learning 
which you assign to the complete orator, let us consider whe- 
ther you do not attribute to him more than possibility and 
truth itself will allow." Here Crassus rejoined : " Remember 
that I have not been speaking of my own talents, but of 
those of the true orator. For what have I either learned or 
had a possibility of knowing, who entered upon pleading 
before I had any instruction ; whom the pressure of business 
overtasked amidst the occupations of the forum, of canvassing, 
of public affairs, and the management of the causes of friends, 
before I could form any true notion of the importance of 
such great employments'? But if there seem to you to be so 
much in me, to whom, though capacity, as you think, may 
not greatly have been wanting, yet to whom leai'ning, leisure, 
and that keen application to study which is so necessary, 
have certainly been wanting, what do you think would be the 
case if those acquirements, which I have not gained, should 
be united to some greater genius than mine*? How able, how 
gi'eat an orator, do you think, would he prove?" 

XYIII. Antonius then observed : " You prove to me, 
Crassus, what you advance ; nor do I doubt that he will 
have a far greater fund of eloquence who shall have learned 
the reason and nature of everything and of all sciences. But, 
in the first place, this is difficult to be achieved, especially 
in such a life as ours and such occupations; and next, it 
is to be feared that we may, by such studies, be drawn away 
from our exercise and practice of speaking before the people 
and in the forum. The eloquence of those men whom you 
mentioned a little before, seems to me to be of a quite dif- 
ferent sort, though they speak with grace and dignity, as well 
on the nature of things as on human life. Theirs is a neat 
and florid kind of language, but more adapted for parade 
and exercise in the schools, than for these tumults of the 
city and forum. For when I, who late in life, and then but 

m2 



164 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. I. 

lightly, touched upon Greek learning, was going as proconsul 
into Cilicia, and had arrived at Athens^ I waited there several 
days on account of the difficulty of sailing; and as I had 
every day with me the most learned men, nearly the same 
that you have just now named, and a report, I know not 
how, had spread amongst them that I, like you, was versed 
in causes of great importance, every one, according to his 
abilities, took occasion to discourse upon the office and art of 
an orator. Some of them, as Mnesarchus himself, said, that 
those whom we call orators were nothing but a set of me- 
chanics with glib and well-practised tongues, but that no 
one could be an orator but a man of true wisdom ; and that 
eloquence itself, as it consisted in the art of speaking well, 
was a kind of virtue,^ and that he who possessed one virtue 
possessed all, and that virtues were in themselves equal and 
alike ; and thus he who was eloquent possessed all virtues, 
and was a man of true wisdom. But their phraseology was in- 
tricate and dry, and quite unsuited to my taste. Charmadas 
indeed spoke much more diffusely on those topics ; not that 
he delivered his own opinion (for it is the hereditary custom 
of every one in the Academy to take the part of opponents 
to all in their disputations), but what he chiefly signified was, 
that those who were called rhetoricians, and laid down rules 
for the art of speaking, understood nothing; and that no 
man could attain any command of eloquence who had not 
mastered the doctrines of the philosophers. 

XIX. ^^ Certain men of eloquence at Athens, versed in 
public affairs and judicial pleadings, disputed on the other 
side j among whom was Menedemus, lately my guest at Rome ; 
but when he had observed that there is a sort of wisdom 
which is employed in inquiring into the methods of settling 
and managing governments, he, though a ready speaker^ was 
promptly attacked by the other,^ a man of abundant learning, 
and of an almost incredible variety and copiousness of argu- 
ment; who maintained that every portion of such wisdom 
must be derived from philosophy, and that whatever was 
established in a state concerning the immortal gods, the dis- 
cipline of youth, justice, patience, temperance, moderation in 
everything, and other matters, without which states would 

^ The Stoics called eloquence one of their virtues. See Quintilian, 
ii. 20. ^ Charmadas. 



C. XX.] ox THE OHiKACTER OF THE ORATOR. 165 

either not subsist at all, or be corrupt in morals, was nowhere 
to be found in the petty treatises of the rhetoricians. For if 
those teachers of rhetoric included in their art such a mul- 
titude of the most important subjects, why, he asked, were 
their books crammed with rules about proems and perorations, 
and such trifles (for so he called them), while about the 
modelling of states, the composition of laws, about equity, 
justice, integrity, about mastering the appetites, and forming 
the morals of mankind, not one single syllable was to be 
found in their pages ? Their precepts he ridiculed in such 
a manner, as to show that the teachers were not only desti- 
tute of the knowledge which they arrogated to themselves, 
but that they did not even know the proper art and method 
of speaking; for he thought that the principal business of an 
orator was, that he might appear to those to whom he spoke\ 
to be such as he would wish to appear (that this was to be 
attained by a life of good reputation, on which those teachers / 
of rhetoric had laid down nothing in their precepts); and 
that the minds of the audience should be affected in such 
a manner as the orator would have them to be affected, an 
object, also, which could by no means be attained, unless the 
speaker understood by what methods, by what arguments, 
and by what sort of language the minds of men are moved 
in any particular direction; but that these matters were 
involved and concealed in the profoundest doctrines of phi- 
losophy, which these rhetoricians had not touched even with 
the extremity of their lips. These assertions Menedemus 
endeavoured to refute, but rather by authorities than by 
arguments ; for, repeating from memory many noble passages 
from the orations of Demosthenes, he showed that that 
orator, while he swayed the minds of judges or of the people 
by his eloquence, was not ignorant by what means he attained 
his end, which Charmadas denied that any one could know 
without philosophy. 

XX. " To this Charmadas replied, that he did not deny that 
Demosthenes was possessed of consummate ability and the 
utmost energy of eloquence; but whether he had these 
powers from natural genius, or because he was, as was 
acknowledged, a diligent hearer of Plato, it was not what 
Demosthenes could do, but what the rhetoricians taught, 
that was the subject of inquiry. Sometimes too tie was 



168 DE ORATOREj OR, [b. I. 

carried so far by the drift of his discourse, as to maintain 
that there was no art at ail in speaking; and having shown 
by various arguments that we are so formed by nature as to 
be able to flatter, and to insinuate ourselves, as suppliants, 
into the favour of those from whom we wish to obtain any- 
thing, as well as to terrify our enemies by menaces, to relate 
matters of fact, to confirm what we assert, to refute what is 
said against us, and, finally, to use entreaty or lamentation; 
particulars in which the whole faculties of the orator are 
employed; and that practice and exercise sharpened the 
understanding, and produced fluency of speech, he rested his 
cause, in conclusion, on a multitude of examples that he 
adduced; for first, as if stating an indisputable fact,^ he 
affirmed that no writer on the art of rhetoric was ever even 
moderately eloquent, going back as far as I know not what 
\ Corax and Tisias,^ who, he said, appeared to be the in- 
j venters and first authors of rhetorical science; and then 
named a vast number of the most eloquent men who had 
neither learned, nor cared to understand the rules of art, 
and amongst whom, (whether in jest, or because he thought, 
or had heard something to that effect,) he instanced me as 
one who had received none of their instructions, and yet, as 
he said, had some abilities as a speaker; of which two 
observations I readily granted the truth of one, that I had 
never been instructed, but thought that in the other he was 
either joking with me, or was under some mistake. But he 
denied there was any art, except such as lay in things that 
were known and thoroughly understood, things tending to 
the same object, and never misleading; but that everything 
treated by the orators was doubtful and uncertain; as it was 
uttered by those who did not fully understand it, and was 
heard by them to whom knowledge was not meant to be 
communicated, but merely false, or at least obscure notions, 

1 Quasi deditd opera. As if Charmadas himself had collected all the 
writers on the art of rhetoric, that he might be in a condition to prove 
what he now asserted ; or, as if the writers on the art of rhetoric them- 
selves had purposely abstained from attempting to be eloquent. But 
Charmadas was very much in the wrong ; for Gorgias, Isocrates, Prota- 
goras, Theophrastus, and other teachers of rhetoric were eminent for 
eloquence. FroiLst. 

'' Two Sicilians, said to have been the most ancient writers on rhetoric. 
See Quint ilian, iii. 1. 



C. XXI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 167 

intended to live in their minds only for a short time. In 
short, he seemed bent on convincing me that there was no 
art of speaking, and that no one could speak skilfully, or so 
as fully to illustrate a subject, but ©ne who had attained that 
knowledge which is delivered by the most learned of the 
philosophers. On which occasions Charmadas used to say, 
with a passionate admiration of your genius, Crassus, that 
I appeared to him very easy in listening, and you most 
pertinacious in disputation. 

XXI. " Then it was that I, swayed by this opinion, re- 
marked in a little treatise^ which got abroad, and into 
people's hands, without my knowledge and against my will, 
that I had known many good speakers, but never yet any one 
that was truly eloquent ; for I accounted him a good spealcer, 
who could express his thoughts with accuracy and perspi- 
cuity, according to the ordinary judgment of mankind, before 
an audience of moderate capacity; but I considered him alone 
eloquent^ who could in a more admirable and noble manner 
amplify and adorn whatever subjects he chose, and who em- 
braced in thought and memory all the principles of everything 
relating to oratory. This, though it may be difficult to us, 
who, before we begin to speak in public, are overwhelmed by 
canvassings for office and by the business of the forum, is 
yet within the range of possibility and the powers of nature. 
For I, as far as I can divine by conjecture, and as far as I can 
estimate the abilities of our countrymen, do not despair that 
there may arise at some time or. other a person, who, when, 
with a keener devotion to study than we feel, or have ever 
felt, with more leisure, with better and more mature talent 
for learning, and with superior labour and industry, he shall 
have given himself up to hearing, reading, and writing, may 
become such an orator as we desire to see, — one who may 
justly be called not only a good speaker, but truly eloquent; 
and such a character, in my opinion, is our friend Crassus, or 
some one, if such ever was, of equal genius, who, having 
heard, read, and written more than Crassus, shall be able to 
make some little addition to it." 

Here Sulpicius observed : " That has happened by acci- 
dent, Crassus, which neither Cotta nor I expected, but which 
we both earnestly desired, — I mean, that you should in- 
^ See c. 47 — Cicero speaks of it as exilis, poor and dry, Brut. 44 ; Orat. 5. 



168 DE oratore; or, [b. i. 

sensibly glide into a discourse of this kind. For, as^ we were 
coming hither, we thought it would be a pleasure, if, while 
you were talking on other matters, we might gather some- 
thing worthy to be remembered from your conversation ; but 
that you should go into a deep and full discussion on this 
very study, or art, or faculty, and penetrate into the heart of 
it, was what we could scarcely venture to hope. For I, who, 
from my early youth, have felt a strong affection for you 
both, and even a love for Crassus, having never left his com- 
pany, could never yet elicit a word from him on the method 
and art of speaking, though I not only solicited him myself, 
but endeavoured to move him by the agency of Drusus ; on 
which subject you, Antonius, (I speak but the truth,) never 
failed to answer my requests and interrogatories, and have 
very often told me what you used to notice in speaking. And 
since each of you has opened a way to these subjects of our 
research, and since Crassus was the first to commence this 
discourse, do us the favour to acquaint us fully and exactly 
what you think about the various kinds of eloquence. If we 
obtain this indulgence from you, I shall feel the greatest 
obligation to this school of yours, Crassus, and to your Tus- 
culan villa, and shall prefer your suburban place of study to 
the famous Academy and Lyceum." 

XXII. " Nay rather, Sulpicius," rejoined Crassus, " let us 
ask Antonius, who is both capable of doing what you desire, 
and, as I hear you say, has been accustomed to do so. As to 
myself, I acknowledge that I have ever avoided all such kind 
of discourse, and have often declined to comply with your 
requests and solicitations, as you just now observed. This 
I did, not from pride or want of politeness, nor because I 
was unwilling to aid your just and commendable aspirations, 
especially as I knew you to be eminently and above others 
formed and qualified by nature to become a speaker, but, in 
truth, from being unaccustomed to such kind of discussions, 
and from being ignorant of those principles which are laid 
down as institutes of the art." " Then," said Cotta, ^' since 
we have got over what we thought the greatest difficulty, 
to induce you, Crassus, to speak at all upon these subjects, 
for the rest, it will be our own fault if we let you go before 
you have explained all that we have to ask." '' I believe 
I must answer/' says Crassus, " as is usually written in the 



C. XXII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 1G9 

formulae for entering on inheritanceSj^ concerning such points 
AS I KNOW AND SHALL BE ABLE." " And which of US," rejoined 
Cotta, '* can be so presuming as to desire to know or to be 
able to do anything that you do not know or cannot do ? " 
" Well, then," returned Crassus, " on condition that I may 
say that I cannot do what I cannot do, and that I may own 
that I do not know what I do not know, you may put ques- 
tions to me at your pleasure." " We shall, then, first ask of 
you," said Sulpicius, " what you think of what Antonius has 
advanced ; whether you think that there is any art in speak- 
ing 1 " " What ! " exclaimed Crassus, '^ do you put a trifling 
question to me, as to some idle and talkative, though perhaps 
studious and learned Greek, on which I may speak accord- 
ing to my humour ? When do you imagine that I have ever 
regarded or thought upon such matters, or have not always 
rather ridiculed the impudence of those men who, seated 
in the schools, would demand if any one, in a numxcrous 
assembly of persons, wished to ask any question, and desire 
him to speak 1 This Gorgias the Leontine is said to have 
first done, who was thought to undertake and promise some- 
thing vast, in pronouncing himself prepared to speak on all 
subjects on which any one should be inclined to hear him. 
But afterwards those men made it a common practice, and 
continue it to this day ; so that there is no topic of such 
importance, or so unexpected, or so new, on which they do 
not profess that they will say all that can be said. But if I 
had thought that you, Cotta, or you, Sulpicius, were desirous 
to hear such matters, I would have brought hither some 
Greek to amuse you with their manner of disputation; for 
there is with M. Piso,^ (a youth already addicted to this intel- 
lectual exercise, and one of superior talents, and of great affec- 
tion for me,) the peripatetic Staseas, a man with whom I am 
well acquainted, and who, as I perceive is agreed amongst the 
learned, is of the first eminence in his profession." 

^ Cretionibus. An heir was allowed a certain time to determine, 
cernere, whether he would enter upon an estate bequeathed to him, or 
not. See Cic. ad Att. xi. 12; xiii. 46; Gains, Instit. ii. lt)4 ; Ulpian, 
Fragm. xxii. 27; Heinecc. Syntagm. ii. 14, 17. 

2 Marcus Pupius Piso Calpurnianus, to whom Cicero was introduced 
by his father, that he might profit by his learning and experience. 
See Ascon. Pedian. ad Pison. 26 ; Cic. Brut. 67 ; De Nat. Deor, 
i. 7, 16. 






170 DE oratore; or, [b. I. 

XXIII. "Why do you speak to me," says Scaevola, "of 
this Staseas, this peripatetic ? You must comply with the 
wishes of these young gentlemen, Crassus, who do not want 
the common, profitless talk of any Greek, or any empty 
declamation of the schools, but desire to know the opinions 
of a man in whose footsteps they long to tread, — one who is 
the wisest and most eloquent of all men, who is not dis- 
tinguished by petty books of precepts, but is the first, both 
in judgment and oratory, in causes of the greatest conse- 
quence, and in this seat of empire and glory. For my part, 
as I always thought you a god in eloquence, so I have never 
attributed to you greater praises for oratory than for polite- 
ness ; which you ought to show on this occasion especially, 
and not to decline a discussion on which two young men of 
such excellent ability invite you to enter." " I am certainly," 
replied Crassus, " desirous to oblige them, nor shall I think it 
any trouble to speak briefly, as is my manner, what I think 
upon any point of the subject. And to their first question, 
(because I do not think it right for me to neglect your admo- 
nition, Scsevola,) I answer, that I think there is either no art of 
speaking at all, or but very little j but that all the disputation 
about it amongst the learned arises from a difierence of opinion 
about the word. For if art is to be defined according to what 
Antonius just now asserted,^ as lying in things thoroughly 
understood and fully known, such as are abstracted from the 
caprice of opinion and comprehended in the limits of science, 
there seems to me to be no art at all in oratory; since all 
the species of our forensic diction are various, and suited to 
the common understanding of the people. Yet if those things 
which have been observed in the practice and method of 
speaking, have been noted and chronicled by ingenious and 
skilful men, have been set forth in words, illustrated in their 
several kinds, and distributed into parts, (as I think may 
possibly be done,) I do not understand why speaking may not 
be deemed an art, if not according to the exact definition of 
Antonius, at least according to common opinion. But whether 
it be an art, or merely the resemblance of an art, it is not, 
indeed, to be neglected; yet we must understand that there 
are other things of more consequence for the attainment of 
eloquence." 

1 Cap. XX. 



C.XXV.] ox THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 171 

XXiy. Antonius then observed, that he was very strongly 
of opinion with Crassus ; for he neither adopted such a defini- 
tion of art as those preferred who attributed all the powers of 
eloquence to art, nor did he repudiate it entirely, as most of 
the philosophers had done. " But I imagine, Crassus," added 
he, " that you will gratify these two young men, if you will 
spQcify those particulars which you think may be more con- 
ducive to oratory than art itself." " I will indeed mention 
them," said he, *' since I have engaged to do so, but must beg 
Cjou not to publish my trifling remarks; though I will keep 
myself unJer such restraint as not to seem to speak like 
a master, or artist, but like one of the number of private 
citizens, moderately versed in the practice of the forum, and 
not altogether ignorant ; not to have offered anything from 
myself, but to have accidentally fallen in with the course of 
your conversation. Indeed, when I was a candidate for office, 
I used, at the time of canvassing, to send away Scsevola from 
me, telling him I wanted to be foolish, that is, to solicit with 
flattery, a thing that cannot be done to any purpose unless it 
be done foolishly; and that he was the only man in the world 
in whose presence I should least like to play the fool ; and 
yet fortune has appointed him to be a witness and spectator 
of my folly. ^ For what is more foolish than to speak about 
speaking, when speaking itself is never otherwise than foolish, ; 
except it is absolutely necessary I" " Proceed, however, Cras- - 
sus," said Scaevola; "for I will take upon myself the blame 
which you fear." 

XXY. " I am, then, of opinion," said Crassus, ^' that nature 
and genius in the first place contribute most aid to speaking ; 
and that to those writers on the art, to whom Antonius just 
now alluded, it was not skill and method in speaking, but 
natural talent that was wanting; for there ought to be cer- 
tain lively powers in the mind^ and understanding, which 
may be acute to invent, fertile to explain and adorn, and 
strong and retentive to remember; and if any one imagines 
that these powers may be acquired by art, (which is false, for 

^ See Val. Max. iy. 5. 4. 

2 Aninii atque ingenii celeres quidam motus. This sense of raotiis, as 
Ellendt observes, is borrowed from the Greek Kivqais, by which the 
philosophers intimated an active power, as, without motion, all things 
would remain unchanged, and nothing be generated. See Matth. ad 
Cic. pro Sest. 68, 143. 



172 DE oratore; or, [b. i. 

it is very well if they can be animated and excited by art ; 
but they certainly cannot by art be ingrafted or instilled, 
since they are all the gifts of nature,) what will he say of 
those qualities which are certainly born with the man him- 
self, volubility of tongue, tone of voice, strength of lungs, 
and a peculiar conformation and aspect of the whole coun- 
tenance and body *? I do not say, that art cannot improve in 
these particulars, (for I am not ignorant that what is good 
may be made better by education, and what is not very 
good may be in some degree polished and amended;) but 
there are some persons so hesitating in their speech, so inhar- 
monious in their tone of voice, or so unwieldy and rude 
in the air and movements of their bodies, that, whatever 
power they possess either from genius or art, they can never 
be reckoned in the number of accomplished speakers; while 
there are others so happily qualified in these respects, so 
eminently adorned with the gifts of nature, that they seem 
not to have been born like other men, but moulded by some 
divinity. It is, indeed, a great task and enterprise for a 
person to undertake and profess, that while every one else is 
silent, he alone must be heard on the most important sub- 
jects, and in a large assembly of men; for there is scarcely 
any one present who is not sharper and quicker to discover 
defects in the speaker than merits ; and thus whatever offends 
the hearer effaces the recollection of what is worthy of praise. 
I do not make these observations for the purpose of altogether 
deterring young men from the study of oratory, even if they 
be deficient in some natural endowments. For who does not 
perceive that to C. Caeliiis, my contemporary, a new man^ the 
mere mediocrity in speaking, which he was enabled to attain, 
was a great honour ? Who does not know that Q. Yarius, 
your equal in age, a clumsy, uncouth man, has obtained 
his great popularity by the cultivation of such faculties as 
he has ? 

XXYI. " But as our inquiry regards the complete orator, 
we must imagine, in our discussion, an orator from whom 
every kind of fault is abstracted, and who is adorned with 
every kind of merit. For if the multitude of suits, if the 
variety of causes, if the rabble and barbarism of the forum, 
afford room for even the most wretched speakers, we musJ 
not, for that reason, take our eyes from the object of out 



C. XXVI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 173 

inquiry. In those arts, in which it is not indispensable 
usefulness that is sought, but liberal amusement for the 
mind, how nicely, how almost fastidiously, do we judge ! For 
there are no suits or controversies which can force men, 
though they may tolerate indifferent orators in the forum, 
to endure also bad actors upon the stage. The orator there- 
fore must take the most studious precaution not merely to 
satisfy those whom he necessarily must satisfy, but to seem 
worthy of admiration to those who are at liberty to judge 
disinterestedly. If you would know what I myself think, 
I will express to you, my intimate friends, what I have 
hitherto never mentioned, and thought that I never should 
mention. To me, those who speak best, and speak with the' 
utmost ease and grace, apj-ear, if they do not commence' 
their speeches with some timidity, and show some confusion 
in the exordium, to have almost lost the sense of shame, 
though it is impossible that such should not be the case;^ 
for the better qualified a man is to speak, the more he fears"" 
the difficulties of speaking, the uncertain success of a speech^'-' 
and the expectation of the audience. But he who can pro- 
duce and deliver nothing worthy of his subject, nothing 
worthy of the name of an orator, nothing worthy the attention 
of his audience, seems to me, though he be ever so confused 
while he is speaking, to be downright shameless ; for we ought 
to avoid a character for shamelessness, not by testifying 
shame, but by not doing that which does not become us. 
But the speaker who has no shame (as I see to be the case 
with many) I regard as deserving, not only of rebuke, but of 
personal castigation. Indeed, what I often observe in you I 
rery frequently experience in myself, that I turn pale in the 
Dutset of my speech, and feel a tremor through my whole 
thoughts, as it were, and limbs. When I was a young man, 
I was on one occasion so timid in commencing an accusation, 
that I owed to Q. Maximus^ the greatest of obligations for 
immediately dismissing the assembly, as soon as he saw me 
absolutely disheartened and incapacitated through fear."..; 
Here they all signified assent, looked significantly at one 

^ Tametsi id accidere non potest. " Quamvis id fieri non possit, ut 
qui optinie dicit, in exordio non perturbetur." Proust. 

2 He seems to be Quintus Fabius Maximus Eburnus, who was consul 
A.u.c. 638, and who, it is probable, presided as prsetor on the occasion 
of which Crassus speaks. Ellendt. 



174. DE OKATOEEj OK, [b. I. 

.anotherj and began to talk together; for there was a won- 
/derful modesty in Crassus, which however was not only no 
\ disadvantage to his oratory, but even an assistance to it, by 
•giving it the recommendation of probity. 
V XXYII. Antonius soon after said, " I have often observed, 
as you mention, Crassus, that both you and other most 
accomplished orators, although in my opinion none was ever 
equal to you, have felt some agitation in entering upon their 
/ speeches. When I inquired into the reason of this, and 
considered why a speaker, the more ability he possessed, felt 
the greater fear in speaking, I found that there were two 
causes of such timidity : one, that those whom experience 
and nature had formed for speaking, well knew that the 
event of a speech did not always satisfy expectation 
even in the greatest orators; and thus, as often as they 
spoke, they feared, not without reason, that what sometimes 
happened might happen then; the other (of which I am 
often in the habit of complaining) is, that men, tried and 
approved in other arts, if they ever do anything with less 
success than usual, are thought either to have wanted in- 
clination for it, or to have failed in performing what they 
knew how to perform from ill health. ' Roscius,' they say, 
* would not act to-day,' or, ^ he was indisposed.' But if any 
deficiency is seen in the ora.tor, it is thought to proceed from 
want of sense ; and want of sense admits of no excuse, because 
nobody is supposed to have wanted sense because he ^ was in- 
disposed,' or because ^ such was his inclination.' Thus we 
undergo a severer judgment in oratory, and judgment is 
' pronounced upon us as often as we speak; if an actor is 
once mistaken in an attitude, he is not immediately con- 
sidered to be ignorant of attitude in general; but if any 
fault is found in a speaker, there prevails for ever, or at least 
for a very long time, a notion of his stupidity. 

XXYIII. " But in what you observed, as to there being 
many things in which, unless the orator has a full supply of 
them from nature, he cannot be much assisted by a master, 
I agree with you entirely; and, in regard to that point, I 
have always expressed the highest approbation of that emi- 
• ., nent teacher, Apollonius of Alabanda,^ who, though he taught 

' A town of Caria. The Apollonius mentioned above, c. 17, was 
Apollonius Moio, a native of Rhodes. Proust, 



C. XX VIII. J ox THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 175 

for pay, would not suffer such as he judged could never become 
orators, to lose their labour with him; and he sent them 
away with exhortations and encouragements to each of 
them to pursue that peculiar art for which he thought him 
naturally qualified. To the acquirement of other arts it is 
sufficient for a person to resemble a man, and to be able to 
comprehend in his mind, and retain in his memory, what is 
instilled, or, if he is very dull, inculcated into him ; ho volu- 
bility of tongue is requisite, no quickness of utterance ; none 
of those things which Vv'e cannot form for ourselves, aspect, 
countenance, look^ voice. But in an orator, the acuteness of 
the logicians, the wisdom of the philosophers, the language 
almost of poetry, the memory of lawyers, the voice of tra- 
gedians, the gesture almost of the best actors, is requiredj 
Nothing therefore is more rarely found among mankind than 
a consummate orator; for qualifications which professors of 
other arts are commended for acquiring in a moderate degree, 
each in his respective pursuit, will not be praised in the 
orator, unless they are all combined in him in the highest 
possible excellence." 

'•'Yet observe," said Crassus, ^^how much more diligence 
is used in one of the light and trivial arts than in this, which 
is acknowledged to be of the greatest importance ; for I often 
hear Roscius say, that ' he could never yet find a scholar that 
he was thoroughly satisfied with; not that some of them 
were not worthy of approbation, but because, if they had 
any fault, he himself could not endure it.' Nothing indeed 
is so much noticed, or makes an impression of such lasting 
continuance on the memory, as that in which you give any 
sort of offence. To judge therefore of the accomplishments 
of the orator by comparison with this stage-player, do you 
not observe how everything is done by him unexceptionably ; 
everything with the utmost grace ; everything in such a way 
as is becoming, and as moves and delights all? He has 
accordingly long attained such distinction, that in whatever 
pursuit a man excels, he is called a Roscius in his art. For 
my own part, while I desire this finish and perfection in an 
orator, of which I fall so far short myself, I act audaciously ; 
for I wish indulgence to be granted to myself, while I grant 
none to others; for I think that he who has not abilities, 
who is faulty in action, who, in short, wants a graceful 



176 BE ORATOREj OR, [b. L 

manner, should be sent off, as Apollonius advised, to that for 
which he has a capacity." 

XXIX. " Would you then," said Sulpicius, " desire me, or 
our friend Cotta, to learn the civil law, or the military art?^ 
for who can ever possibly arrive at that perfection of yours, 
that high excellence in every accomplishment?" "It was," 
replied Crassus, ^^ because I knew that there was in both of 
you excellent and noble talents for oratory, that I have 
expressed myself fully on these matters; nor have I adapted 
my remarks more to deter those who had not abilities, than 
to encourage you who had; and though I perceive in you 
both consummate capacity and industry, yet I may say that 
the advantage of personal appearance, on which I have 
perhaps said more than the Greeks are wont to say, are in 
you, Sulpicius, even godlike. For any person better qualified 
for this profession by gracefulness of motion, by his very 
carriage and figure, or by the fulness and sweetness of his 
voice, I think that I have never heard speak; endowments 
which those, to whom they are granted by nature in an 
inferior degree, may yet succeed in managing, in such 
measure as they possess them, with judgment and skill, and 
in such a manner as not to be unbecoming ; for that is what 
is chiefly to be avoided, and concerning which it is most dif- 
ficult to give any rules for instruction, not only for me, who 
talk of these matters like a private citizen, but even for 
Roscius himself, whom I often hear say, *that the most 
essential part of art is to be hecoming' which yet is the only 
thing that cannot be taught by art. But, if it is agreeable, 
let us change the subject of conversation, and talk like our- 
selves a little, not like rhetoricians." 

" By no means," said Cotta, " for we must now intreat you 
(since you retain us in this study, and do not dismiss us to 
any other pursuit) to tell us something of your own abilities, 
whatever they are, in speaking; for we are not inordinately 
ambitious ; we are satisfied with that mediocrity of eloquence 
of yours ; and what we inquire of you is (that we may not 
attain more than that humble degree of oratory at which you 
have arrived) ^ what you think, since you say that the endow- 

* The young Roman nobles were accustomed to pursue one of three 
studies, jurisprudence, eloquence, or war. Proust. 
^ Cotta speaks ironically. 



C. XXXI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 177 

ments to be derived from nature are not very deficient in us, 
we ought to endeavour to acquire in addition." 

XXX. Crassus, smiling, replied, ^^ What do you think is 
wanting to you, Cotta, but a passionate inclination, and a 
sort of ardour like that of love, without which no man will J 
ever attain anything great in life, and especially such dis- 
tinction as you desire ? Yet I do not. see that you need any j 
encouragement to this pursuit; indeed, as you press rather 
hard even upon me, I consider that you burn with an extra- 
ordinarily fervent affection for it. But I am aware that 
a desire to reach any point avails nothing, unless you know 
what will lead and bring you to the mark at which you aim. 
Sinc^ therefore you lay but a light burden upon me, and do 
not question me about the whole art of the orator, but about 
my own ability, little as it is, I will set before you a course, 
not very obscure, or very difficult, or grand, or imposing, the 
course of my own practice, which I was accustomed to pursue 
when I had opportunity, in my youth, to apply to such 
studies." 

^' day much wished for by us, Cotta ! " exclaimed Sul- 
picius j " for what I could never obtain, either by entreaty, or 
stratagem, or scrutiny, (so that I was unable, not only to see 
what Crassus did, with a view to meditation or composition, 
but even to gain a notion of it from his secretary and reader, 
Diphilus.) I hope we have now secured, and that we shall 
learn from himself all that we have long desired to know." 

XXXI. "I conceive, however," proceeded Crassus, ^^that 
when you have heard me, you will not so much admire 
what I have said, as think that, when you desired to hear, 
there was no good reason for your desire; for I shall say 
nothing abstruse, nothing to answer your expectation, nothing 
either previously unheard by you, or new to any one. In the 
first place, I will not deny that, as becomes a man well born ; 
and liberally educated, I learned those trite and common! 
precepts of teachers in general ; first, that it is the business ' 
of an orator to speak in a manner adapted to persuade ; next, 
that every speech is either upon a question concerning a 
matter in general, without specification of persons or times, or 
concerning a matter referring to certain persons and times. 
But that, in either case, whatever falls under controversy, 

'the question with regard to it is usually^ whether such a 

N 



178 DE ORATOEEj OR, [b. I. 

thing has been done, or, if it has been done, of what nature 
it is, or by what name it should be called; or, as some add, 
whether it seems to have been done rightly or not. That 
controversies arise also on the interpretation of writing, in 
which anything has been expressed ambiguously, or contra- 
dictorily, or so that what is written is at variance with the 
writer's evident intention ; and that there are certain lines of 
argument adapted to all these cases. But that of such sub- 
jects as are distinct from general questions, part come under 
the head of judicial proceedings, part under that of delibe- 
rations ; and that there is a third kind which is employed in 
praising or censuring particular persons. That there are 
also certain common places on which we may insist in judicial 
proceedings, in which equity is the object; others, which we 
may adopt in deliberations, all which are to be directed to 
the advantage of those to whom we give counsel; others in 
panegyric, in which all must be referred to the dignity of the 
persons commended. That since all the business and art of 
an orator is divided into five parts,-^ he ought first to find 
out what he should say; next, to dispose and arrange his 
matter, not only in a certain order, but with a sort of power 
and judgment; then to clothe and deck his thoughts with 
language; then to secure them in his memory; and lastly, 
to deliver them with dignity and grace. I had learned and 
understood also, that before we enter upon the main subject, 
the minds of the audience should be conciliated by an exor- 
dium; next, that the case should be clearly stated; then, 
that the point in controversy should be established; then, 
that what we maintain should be supported by proof, and 
that whatever was said on the other side should be refuted; 
and that, in the conclusion of our speech, whatever was in our 
favour should be amplified and enforced, and whatever made 
for our adversaries should be weakened and invalidated. 

XXXII. " 1 had heard also what is taught about the 
costume of a speech ; in regard to which it is first directed 
that we should speak correctly and in pure Latin; next, 
intelligibly and with perspicuity; then gracefully; then 
suitably to the dignity of the subject, and as it were becom- 
ingly; and I had made myself acquainted with the rules 

1 Invention, disposition, embellislinient. memory, and delivery. See 
ii. 19. Ellendt. 



C. XXXIII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 179 

relating to every particular. Moreover, I had seen art applied 
to those things which are properly endowments of nature ; 
for I had gone over some precepts concerning action, and 
some concerning artificial memory, which were short indeed, 
but requiring much exercise; matters on which almost all 
the learning of those artificial orators is employed ; and if I 
should say that it is of no assistance, I should say what is not 
true; for it conveys some hints to admonish the orator, as 
it were, to what he should refer each part of his speech, 
and to what points he may direct his view, so as not to 
wander from the object which he has proposed to himself. 
Bat I consider that with regard to all precepts the case is 
this, not that orators by adhering to them have obtained dis- 
tinction in eloquence; but that certain persons have noticed 
what men of eloquence practised of their own accord, and 
formed rules accordingly ; ^ so that eloquence has not sprung 
from art, but art from eloquence ; not that, as I said before, 
I entirely reject art, for it is, though not essentially necessary 
to oratory, yet proper for a man of liberal education to learn. 
And by you, my young friends, some preliminary exercise 
must be undergone; though indeed you are already on the 
course; but those ^ who are to enter upon a race, and those 
who are preparing for what is to be done in the forum, as 
their field of battle, may alike previously learn, and try their 
powers, by practising in sport." "That sort of exercise," 
said Sulpicius, " is just what we wanted to understand ; but 
we desire to hear more at large what you have briefly and 
cursorily delivered concerning ar1>; though such matters are 
not strange even to us. Of that subject, however, we shall 
inquire hereafter; at present we wish to know your sen- 
timents on exercise." 

XXXIII. '^I like that method," replied Crassus, "which 
you are accustomed to practise, namely, to lay down a case 
similar to those which are brought on in the forum, and to 

^ Atque id egisse. Most critics have supposed these words in some 
I "way faulty. Gesner conjectured, atque digessisse; Lambinus, atque in 
' artem redegisse ; Ernesti, ad artemque redegisse. Ellendt supposes that 
i id egisse may mean ei rei operam dedisse. 

I ^ Sed iis, qui ingrediuntur. Orellius and Ellendt retain this reading, 
I though Ernesti hr.d long before observed that there is no verb on whici 
iis can be considcj-ed as dependent, and that we must read ii or hi as 
a nominative to the following jjossunt. 

n2 



180 DE oratore: or, [b. t. 

speak upon it, as nearly as possible^ as if it were a real case.^ 
But in such efforts the generality of students exercise only 
their voice (and not even that skilfully), and try their 
strength of lungs, and volubility of tongue, and please them- 
, selves with a torrent of their own words ; in which exercise 
; what they have heard deceives them, that men hy speaking 

■ succeed in becoming speakers. For it is truly said also, That 
A Men hy speaking badly make sure of becoming bad speakers. 

In those exercises, therefore, although it be useful even fre- 
quently to speak on the sudden, yet it is more advantageous, 
after taking time to consider, to speak with greater prepara- 
tion and accuracy. But the chief point of all is that which 
(to say the truth) we hardly ever practise (for it requires great 
labour, which most of us avoid) : I mean, to write as much as 
possible. Writing is said to be the best and most excellent 
modeller and teacher of oratory ; and not without reason; for 
if what is meditated and considered easily surpasses sudden 

; and extemporary speech, a constant and diligent habit of 
writing will surely be of more effect than meditation and 
consideration itself; since all the arguments relating to the 
subject on which we write, whether they are suggested by 
art, or by a certain power of genius and understanding, will 
present themselves, and occur to us, while we examine and 
contemplate it in the full light of our intellect ; and all the 
thoughts and words, which are the most expressive of their 

' kind, must of necessity come under and submit to the keen- 
ness of our judgment while writing; and a fair arrangement 

■ and collocation of the words is effected by writing, in a 
certain rhythm and measure, not poetical, but oratorical. 

^ Such are the qualities which bring applause and admiration to 
good orators ; nor will any man ever attain them, unless after 
long and great practice in writing, however resolutely he may 
have exercised himself in extemporary speeches ; and he who 
comes to speak after practice in writing brings this advantage 
with him, that though he speak at the call of the moment, 
yet what he says will bear a resemblance to something written; 
and if ever, when he comes to speak, he brings anything with 
him in writing, the rest of his speech, when he departs from 
what is written, will flow on in a similar strain. As, when 

^ Qudm maxime ad veritajtem accommodate, " with as much adapta- 
tion as possible to truth." 



C. XXXIV. J ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 181 

a boat has once been impelled forward, though the rowers 
suspend their efforts, the vessel herself still keeps her motion 
and course during the intermission of the impulse and force 
of the oars ; so, in a continued stream of oratory, when 
written matter fails, the rest of the speech maintains a similar 
flow, being impelled by the resemblance and force acquired 
from what was written. 

XXXI Y. ^' But in my daily exercises I used, when a youth, 
to adopt chiefly that method which I knew that Caius Carbo, 
my adversary,^ generally practised; which was, that, having 
selected some nervous piece of poetry, or read over such 
a portion of a speech as I could retain in my memory, I used 
to declaim upon what I had been reading in other words, 
chosen with all the judgment that I possessed. But at length 
I perceived that in that method there was this inconvenience, 
that Ennius, if I exercised myself on his verses, or Gracchus, 
if I laid one of his orations before me, had forestalled such 
words as were peculiarly appropriate to the subject, and such 
as were the most elegant and altogether the best; so that, if 
I used the same words, it profited nothing ; if others, it was 
even prejudicial to me, as I habituated myself to use such 
as were less eligible. Afterwards I thought proper, and 
continued the practice at a rather more advanced age,^ to 
translate the orations of the best Greek orators;^ by fixing 
upon which I gained this advantage, that while I rendered 
into Latin what I had read in Greek, I not only used the 
best words, and yet such as were of common occurrence, but 
also formed some words by imitation, which would be new to 
our countrymen, taking care, however, that they were unob- 
jectionable. 

'^ As to the exertion and exercise of the voice, of the breath, 
of the whole body, and of the tongue itself, they do not so 
much require art as labour ; but in those matters we ought to 
be particularly careful whom we imitate and whom we would 
wish to resemble. Not only orators are to be observed by 
us, but even actors, lest by vicious habits we contract any 
awkwardness or ungracefulness. The memory is also to be 

^ See c. X. 

2 Adolescens, When he imitated the practice of Carbo, he was, he 
says, adolescentulus. 

^ A practice recommended by Quintilian, x. 5. 



182 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. T. 

! exercised, by learning accurately by heart as many of om- own 

. "writings, and those of others, as we can. In exercising the 
memory, too, I shall not object if you accustom yourself to 
adopt that plan of referring to places and figures which is 
taught in treatises on the art.^ Your language must then be 
brought forth from this domestic and retired exercise, into 
the midst of the field, into the dust and clamour, into the 
camp and military array of the forum ; you must acquire 
practice in everything; you must try the strength of your 
understanding; and your retired lucubrations must be ex- 

j posed to the light of reality. The poets must also be studied ; 

•an acquaintance must be formed with history; the writers 
and teachers in all .the liberal arts and sciences must be read, 
and turned over, and must, for the sake of exercise, be praised, 
interpreted, corrected, censured, refuted; you must dispute 
on both sides of every question; and whatever may seem 
maintainable on any point, must be brought forward and" 
illustrated. The civil law must be thoroughly studied; laws 
in general must be understood; all antiquity must be known ; 
the usages of the senate, the nature of our government, the 
rights of our allies^ our treaties and convention?, and what- 
ever concerns the interests of the state, must be learned. 
A certain intellectual grace must also be extracted from every 
kind of refinement, with which, as with salt, every oration 
must be seasoned. I have poured forth to you all I had to 
say, and perhaps any citizen whom you had laid hold of in 
any company whatever, would have replied to your inquiries 

, on these subjects equally well." 

'"^ XXXy. When Crassus had uttered these words a silence 
ensued. But though enough seemed to have been said in the 
opinion of the company present, in reference to what had 
been proposed, yet they thought that he had concluded his 
speech more abruptly than they could have wished. Scsevola 
then said, "What is the matter, Cotta? why are you silent? 
Does nothing more occur to you which you would wish to 
ask Crassus?" " Nay," rejoined he, "that is the very thing 
of which I am thinking; for the rapidity of his words was 
such, and his oration was winged with such speed, that 
though I perceived its force and energy I could scarcely see 

^ This is sufficiently explained in book ii. c. 87. See also Quint. 
xi. 2. 



C. XXXV.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. * 183 

its tmck and course; and, as if I had come into some ricli 
and well-furnished house, where the furniture^ was not un- 
packed, nor the plate set out, nor the pictures and statues 
placed in view, but a multitude of all these magnificent 
things laid up and heaped together; so just now, in the 
speech of Crassus, I saw his opulence and the riches of his 
genius, through veils and curtains as it were; but when I 
desired to take a nearer view, there was scarcely opportunity 
for taking a glance at them ; I can therefore neither say that 
I am wholly ignorant of what he possesses, nor that I have 
plainly ascertained and beheld it." " Then," said Scsevola, 
" why do you not act in the same way as you would do, if 
you had really come into a house or villa full of rich fur- 
niture? If everything was put by as you describe, and you 
had a great curiosity to see it, you would not hesitate to ask 
the master to order it to be brought out, especially if he was 
your friend ; in like manner you will now surely ask Crassus 
to bring forth into the light that profusion of splendid objects 
which are his property, (and of which, piled together in one 
place, we have caught a glimpse, as it were through a lattice,^ 
as w^e passed by,) and set everything in its proper situation." 
" I rather ask you, Scsevola," says Cotta, "to do that for me; 
(for modesty forbids Sulpicius and myself to ask of one of 
the most eminent of mankind, who has ever held in contempt 
this kind of disputation, such things as he perhaps regards 
only as rudiments for children ;) but do you oblige us in this, 
Scsevola, and prevail on Crassus to unfold and enlarge upon 
those matters which he has crowded together, and crammed 
into so small a space in his speech." " Indeed," said Scsevola, 
'" I desired that before, more upon your account than my 
own ; nor did I feel so much lono'ing for this discussion from 
Crassus, as I experience pleasure from his orations in pleading. 
But now, Crassus, I ask you also on my own account, that since 
we have so much more leisure than has been allowed us for 
long time, you would not think it troublesome to complete 
tlvQ edifice which you have commenced; for I see a finer 

^ Veste. Under this word is included tapestry, coverings of conches, 
and other things of that sort. 

^ An illustration, says Proust, borrowed from the practice of trader?, 
who allow goods, on which they set a high value, to be seen only through. 
Mtice-work. 



184 • DE OKATORE j OR, [B. 1, 

and better plan of the whole work than I could have ima- 
gined, and one of which I strongly approve." 

XXXYI. " I cannot sufficiently wonder," says Crassus, 
"that even you, Scaevola, should require of me that which 
I do not understand like those who teach it, and which is of 
such a nature, that if I understood it ever so well, it would 
be unworthy of your wisdom and attention." *^Say you 
so?" replied Sceevola. "If you think it scarcely worthy of 
my age to listen to those ordinary precepts, commonly known 
everywhere, can we possibly neglect those other matters which 
you said must be known by the orator, respecting the dispo- 
sitions and manners of mankind, the means by which the 
minds of men are excited or ca-lmed, history, antiquity, the 
administration of the republic, and finally of our own civil 
law itself? For I knew that all this science, this abundance 
of knowledge, was within the compass of your understanding, 
but had never seen such rich furniture among the equipments 
of the orator." 

" Can you then," says Crassus, "(to omit other things in- 
numerable and without limit, and come to your study, the 
civil law,) can you account them orators, for whom Scsevola,^ 
though in haste to go to the Campus Martins, waited several 
hours, sometimes laughing and sometimes angry, while Hyp- 
seeus, in the loudest voice, and with a multitude of words, was 
trying to obtain of Marcus Crassus, the praetor, that the party 
whom he defended might be allowed to lose his suit; and 
Cneius Octavius, a man of consular dignity, in a speech of equal 
length, refused to consent that his adversary should lose his 
cause, and that the party for whom he was speaking should 
be released from the ignominious charge of having been un- 
faithful in his guardianship, and from all trouble, through 
the folly of his antagonist ?" ^ " I should have thought such 

^ Not Quintus Scsevola the augur, the father-in-law of Crassus, in 
whose presence Crassus is speaking, but another Quintus Scsevola, who 
was an eminent lawyer, and held the office of pontifex; but at the time 
to which Crassus alludes he was tribune of the people, B.C. 105. Proust. 

2 The cause was as follows : — As Scsevola the pontiff was going into 
the field of Mars, to the election of consuls, he passed, in his way, 
through the forum, where he found two orators in much litigation, and 
blundering grievously through ignorance of the civil law. One of them 
was Hypsseus, the other Cneius Octavius, who had been consul B.C. 128. 
Hyps^us was accusing some guardian of mal-administration of the 



C. XXXVII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 185 

men/' replied Scsevola, " (for I remember Mucins^ told me the 
story,) not only unworthy of the name of orators, but un- 
worthy even to appear to plead in the forum." "Yet," 
rejoined Crassus, ^Hhose advocates neither wanted eloquence, 
nor method, nor abundance of words, but a knowledge of the 
civil law : for in this case one, in bringing his suit, sought to 
recover more damages than the law of the Twelve Tables 
allowed, and, if he had gained those damages, would have 
lost his cause : the other thought it unj ust that he himself 
should be proceeded against for more than was allowed in 
that sort of action, and did not understand that his adversary, 
if he proceeded in that manner, would lose his suit. 

XXXYII. " Within these few days,^ while we were sitting 

fortunes of his ward. This sort of cause was called judicium tutelce. 
Octavius defended the guardian. The judge of this controversy was 
Marcus Crassus, then city praetor, B.C. 105. He that was condemned on 
such a trial, was decreed to pay damages to his ward to the amount of 
what his affairs had suffered through his means, and, in addition, by 
the law of the Twelve Tables, was to pay something by way of fine. But 
if the ward, or his advocate, sought to recover more from the defendant 
than was due, he lost his cause. Hypsseus proceeded in this manner, 
and therefore ought to have been nonsuited. Octavius, an unskilful 
defender of his client, should have rejoiced at this, for if he had made 
the objection and proved it, he would have obtained his cause ; but 
he refused to permit Hypsseus to proceed for more than was due, 
though such proceeding would, by the law, have been fatal to his suit. 
Proust. 

^ Quintus Mucins Scsevola, mentioned in the last note but one. 

^ The cause was this. One man owed another a sum of money, to 
be paid, for instance, in the beginning of January ; the plaintiff would 
not wait till that time, but brought his action in December; the igno- 
rant lawyer who was for the defendant, instead of contesting with the 
plaintiff this point, that he demanded his money before it was due, 
(which if he had proved, the plaintiff would have lost his cause,) only 
prayed the benefit of the exception, which forbade an action to be 
brought for money before the day of payment, and so only put off the 
cause for that time. This he did not perceive to be a clause inserted 
for the advantage of the plaintiff, that he might know when to bring 
his suit. Thus the plaintiff, when the money became due, was at 
liberty to bring a new action, as if this matter had never come to trial, 
which action he could never have brought, if the first had been deter- 
mined on the other point, namely, its having been brought before the 
money was due ; for then the defendant might have pleaded a former 
judgment, and precluded the plaintiff from his second action. See 
Justin. Instit. iv. 13. 5. de re judicata. " Of which sum there is a time 
for payment," were words of form in the exception from whence it was 
nominated ; as, " That the matter had before come into judgment," 



186 DE oratore; or, [b. i. 

at the tribunal of our friend Quintus Pompeius, the city praetor, 
did not a man who is ranked among the eloquent pray that 
the benefit of the ancient and usual exception, of which sum 
there is time for payment, might be allowed to a party from 
whom a sum of money was demanded ; an exception which 
he did not understand to be made for the benefit of the 
creditor; so that if the defendant^ had proved to the judge 
that the action was brought for the money before it became 
due, the plaintiff,^ on bringing a fresh action, would be pre- 
cluded by the exception, that the matter had before come into 
judgment. What more disgraceful therefore can possibly be 
said or done, than that he who has assumed the character of 
an advocate, ostensibly to defend the causes and interests of 
his friends, to assist the distressed, to relieve such as are sick 
at heart, and to cheer the afflicted, should so err in the 
slightest and most trivial matters, as to seem an object of. 
pity to some, and of ridicule to others'? I consider my 
relation, Publius Crassus, him who from his wealth had the sur- 
name of Dives,^ to have been, in many other respects, a man 
of taste and elegance, but especially worthy of praise and 
commendation on this account, that (as he was the brother 
of Publius Scsevola) ^ he was accustomed to observe to him, 
that neither could he^ have satisfied the claims of the civil law if 
he had not added the power of speaking (which his son here, 
who was my colleague in the consulate, has fully attained) ; 
nor had he himself^ begun to practise, and plead the causes of 
his friends, before he had gained a knoivledge of the civil law, 

were in the other exception reijudicatce. Proust. £. See Gains, Instit. 
iv. 131, and Hefffcer, Obs. on Gains, iv. 23, p. 109 seq. Ellendt. 

^ Infitiator. The defendant or debtor. 

2 Petitor. The plaintiff or creditor. 

^ Publius Licinius Crassus Mucianus, son of Publius Mucins Scaevola, 
who had been adopted into the Licinian family. He was consul with 

Lucius Valerius Flaccus, a.u.c. 623 But the name of Dives had 

previously been in the family of the Crassi, for Publius Crassus. who 
Was consul with Publius Africanus, a.u.c. 549, was so called. Ellendt. 

^ By birth. He had his name of Crassus from adoption, as stated in 
the preceding note. 

^ Publius Scsevola, his brother. In the phrase, neque ilium in jure 
tivili satis illi arti facere posse, the words illi arti are regarded by 
Ernesti and Orellius as spurious, but Ellendt thinks them genuine, 
explaining in jure civili by quod ad jus civile attinet. I have followed 
Orellius and Ernesti in my translation. 

^ Publius Crassus. 



C. XXXVIII. ] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 1 87 

What sort of character was the illustrious Marcus Cato ? Was 
he not possessed of as great a share of eloquence as those times 
and that age^ would admit in this city, and at the same time the 
most learned of all men in the civil law? I have been speaking 
for some time the more timidly on this point, because there 
is with us a man^ eminent in speaking, whom I admire as an 
orator beyond all others; but who has ever held the civil 
law in contempt. But, as you desired to learn my sentiments 
and opinions, I will conceal nothing from you, but, as far as 
I am able, will communicate to you my thoughts upon every 
subject. 

XXXYIII. '^ The almost incredible, unparalleled, and divine 
power of genius in Antonius, appears to me, although wanting 
in legal knowledge, to be able easily to sustain and defend 
itself with the aid of other weapons of reason; let him there- 
fore be an exception; but I shall not hesitate to condemn 
others, by my sentence, of want of industry in the first 
place, and of want of modesty in the next. For to flutter 
about the forum, to loiter in courts of justice and at 
the tribunals of the praetors, to undertake private suits in 
matters of the greatest concern, in which the question is 
often not about fact, but about equity and law, to swagger in 
causes heard before the centumviri,^ in which the laws of 
prescriptive rights, of guardianship, of kindred,^ of agnation,^ 
of alluvions, circumluvions,^ of bonds, of transferring pro- 

^ Ilia fempora at que ilia cetas. By tempora is meant the state of the 
times as to political afiairs ; by cetas, the period of advancement in 
learning and civilization which Kome had reached. 

^ Antonius. 

^ A body of inferior judices, chosen three out of each tribe, so that 
the full number was a hundred and five. They took cognisance of such 
minor causes as the preetor entrusted to their decision. 

* Gentilitatum. Kindred or family. Persons of the same family or 
descent had certain peculiar rights, e.g. in entering upon an inheritance, 
in undertaking guardianship. In such rights slaves, freedmen, and 
capite deminuti had no participation. See Cic. Top. 6, 29. Proust. 

^ The agnati, as a brother by the same father, a brother's son or 
grandson, an uncle's son or grandson, had their peculiar rights. See 
Gains, i. 156. 

^ About these, various controversies might arise ; as, when the force 
of a river has detached a portion from your land, and added it to that 
of your neighbour, to whom does that portion belong? Or if trees 
have been carried away from your land to that of your neighbour, and 
have taken root there, &c. Proust, 



188 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. I. 

perty, of party walls^ lights, stillicidia,'^ of wills, transgressed 
or established, and innumerable other matters are debated, 
when a man is utterly ignorant what is properly his own, and 
what his neighbour's, why any person is considered a citizen 
or a foreigner, a slave or a freeman, is a proof of extraordinary 
impudence. It is ridiculous arrogance for a man to confess 
himself unskilful in navigating smaller vessels, and yet say 
that he has learned to pilot galleys with five banks of oars, 
or even larger ships. You who are deceived by a quibble of 
-your adversary in a private company, you who set your seal 
to a deed for your client, in which that is written by which 
he is overreached; can I think that any cause of greater 
consequence ought to be entrusted to you'? Sooner assuredly 
shall he who oversets a two-oared boat in the harbour steer 
the vessel of the Argonauts in the Euxine Sea. 

'' But what if the causes are not trivial, but often of the 
utmost importance, in which disputes arise concerning points 
of civil law ? What front must that advocate have who dares 
to appear in causes of such a nature without any knowledge 
of that law? What cause, for instance, could be of more 
consequence than that of the soldier, of whose death a false 
report having been brought home from the army, and his 
father, through giving credit to that report, having altered 
his will, and appointed another person, whom he thought 
proper, to be his heir, and having then died himself, the 
afiair, when the soldier returned home, and instituted a suit 
for his paternal inheritance, came on to be heard before the 
centumviri? The point assuredly in that case was a question 
of civil law, whether a son could be disinherited of his father's 
possessions, whom the father neither appointed his heir by 
will, nor disinherited by name?^ 

^ When a person was obliged to let the water, which dropped from 
his house, run into the garden or area of his neighbour ; or to receive 
the water that fell from his neighbour's house into his area. Adam's 
Roman Antiquities, p. 49. 

2 For he who had a son under his power should have taken care to 
institute him his heir, or to disinherit him by name ; since if a father 
pretermitted or passed over his son in silence, the testament was of no 
effect. Just. Inst. ii. 13. And if the parents disinherited their chil- 
dren without cause, the civil law was, that they might complain that 
such testaments were invalid, under colour that their parents were not 
of sound mind when they made them. Just. Inst. ii. 18. B. 



C. XXXIX.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 189 

XXXIX. " On the point too which the centumviri decided 
between the Marcelli and the Claudii, two patrician families, 
when the Marcelli said that an estate, which had belonged to 
the son of a freedman, reverted to them by right of stirps, 
and the Claudii alleged that the property of the man reverted 
to them by right of gens, was it not necessary for the pleaders 
in that cause to speak upon all the rights of stirps and gens .? ^ 
As to that other matter also, which we have heard was con- 
tested at law before the centumviri, when an exile came to 
Eome, (who had the privilege of living in exile at Rome, if he 
attached himself to any citizen as a patron,) and died in- 
testate, was not, in a cause of that nature, the law of attach- 
ment,'^ obscure and indeed unknown, expounded and illustrated 
by the pleader? When I myself lately defended the cause 
of Sergius Aurata, on a private suit against our friend 
Antonius, did not my whole defence turn upon a point of 
law*? For when Marius Gratidianus had sold a house to 
Aurata, and had not specified, in the deed of sale, that any 
part of the building owed service,^ we argued, that for v/hat- 

^ The son of a freedman of the Claudian family had died without 
making a wi]l, and his property fell by law to the Claudii : but there 
were two families of them, — the Claudii Pulcliri, who were patricians, 
and the Claudii Marcelli, who were plebeians; and these two families 
went to law about the possession of the dead man's property. The 
patrician Claudii (whose family was the eldest of the name) claimed 
the inheritance by right of genu, on the ground that the freedman was 
of the gens Claudia, of which their family was the chief ; . . . . while 
the Claudii Marcelli, or plebeian Claudii, claimed it by right of stirps, 
on the ground that the freedman was more nearly related to them than 
to the Pulchri. Fearce. The term gens was used in reference to patri- 
cians ; that of stirps, to plebeians. Proust. 

^ Jus apfjlicationis This was a right which a Roman quasi-patronus 
had to the estate of a foreign client dying intestate. He was called 
quasi-pjatronus, because none but Roman citizens could have patrons. 
The difficulty in this cause proceeded from the obscurity of the law 
on which this kind of right was founded. 

^ The services of city estates are those which appertain to buildings. 
It is required by city services that neighbours should bear the burdens 
of neighbours ; and, by such services, one neighbour may be permitted 
to place a beam upon the wall of another ; may be compelled to receive 
the droppings and currehts from the gutter-pipes of another man's 
house upon his own house, area, or sewer ; or may be exempted from 
receiving them ; or may be restrained from raising his house in height, 
lest he should darken the habitation of his neighbour. Harris's Jus- 
tinian, ii. 3. B. 



190 BE ORATOREj OR, [b. L 

ever incumbrance attended the thing sold, if the seller knew of 
it, and did not make it known, he ought to indemnify the pur 
chaser.^ In this kind of action our friend Marcus Bucculeiua 
a man not a fool in my opinion, and very wise in his own, 
and one who has no aversion to the study of law, made 
a mistake lately, in an affair of a somewhat similar nature. 
For when he sold a house to Lucius Fufius, he engaged, in the 
act of conveyance, that the window-lights should remain as they 
then were. But Fufius, as soon as a building began to rise 
in some part of the city, which could but just be seen from 
that house, brought an action against Bucculeius, on the 
ground that whatever portion of the sky was intercepted, 
at however great a distance, the window-light underwent 
a.change.2 Amidst what a concourse of people too, and with 
what universal interest, was the famous cause between Manius 
Curius and Marcus Coponius lately conducted before the cen- 
tumviri! On which occasion Quintus Scsevola, my equal in 
age, and my colleague,^ a man of all others the most learned 
in the practice of the civil law, and of most acute genius and 
discernment, a speaker most polished and refined in his lan- 
guage, and indeed, as I am accustomed to remark, the best 
orator among the lawyers, and the best lawyer among the 

^ There is a more particular statement of this cause between Grati- 
dianus and Aurata in Cicero's Offices, iii. 16. The Eoman law, in that par- 
ticular founded on the law of nature, ordained, to avoid deceit in bargain 
and sale, that the seller should give notice of all the bad qualities in^ 
the thing sold which he knew of, or pay damages to the purchaser for / 
his silence ; to which law Horace alludes, Sat. iii. 2 : / 

Mentem nisi litigiosus 
Exciperet dominus cum venderet. 
But if he told the faults, or they were such as must be seen by a person 
using common care, the buyer suffered for his negligence, as Horace 
again indicates, Epist, ii. 2 : 

Hie feret pretium poenae securus opinor : 
Prudens emisti vitiosum. Dicta tibi est Lex. 
See also Grotius, ii. 12, and Puffendorf, v. 3. s. 4, 5. B. 

^ The mistake of Bucculeius seems to have consisted in this; he 
meant to restrain Fufius from raising the house in height, which might 
darken, or making any hew windows which might overlook, some 
neighbouring habitation which belonged to him; but by the use of 
words adapted by law for another purpose, he restrained himself from 
building within the prospect of those windows already made in the 
house which Fufius purchased. B. 

3 In the consulship. 



C. XL.] OX THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 191 

orators, argued the law from the letter of the will, and 
maintained that he who was appointed second heir, after a 
posthumous son should be born and die, could not possibly 
inherit, unless such posthumous son had actually been born, 
and had died before he came out of tutelage : I, on the other 
side, argued that he who made the will had this intention, 
that if there w^as no son at all who could come out of tute- 
lao:e, Manius Curius should be his heir. Did either of us, in 
that cause, fail to exert ourselves in citing authorities, and 
precedents, and forms of wills, that is, to dispute on the pro- 
foundest points of civil law*?^ 

XL. " I forbear to mention many examples of causes of the 
greatest consequence, which are indeed without number. It 
may often happen that even capital cases may turn upon 
a point of law ; for, as an example, Publius Kutilius, the son 
of Marcus, when tribune of the people, ordered Caius Man- 
cinus, a most noble and excellent man, and of consular 
dignity, to be put out of the senate; on the occasion when 
the chief herald had given him up to the Numantines, 
according to a decree of the senate, passed on account of the 
odium which he had incurred by his treaty with that people, 
and they would not receive him,^ and he had then returned 
home, and had not hesitated to take his place in the senate ; 
the tribune, I say, ordered him to be put out of the house, 
maintaining that he was not a citizen ; because it w^as a re- 
ceived tradition, That he whom his own father, or the people, 
had sold, or the chief herald had given up, had no postlimi- 
nium^ or right of return. What more important cause or 
argument can we find, among all the variety of civil transac- 
tions, than one concerning the rank, the citizenship, the 
liberty, the condition of a man of consular dignity, especially 
as the case depended, not on any charge which he might 
deny, but on the interpretation of the civil law? In a like 
case, but concerning a person of inferior degree, it was in- 
quired among our ancestors, whether, if a person belonging 

^ This celebrated cause is so clearly stated by Cicero as to require 
no explanation. It was gained by Crassus, the evident intention of 
the testator prevailing over the letter of the wiU. It is quoted as 
a precedent by Cicero, pro Caecina, c. 18. 

2 See Florus, ii. 18 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 1. 

3 See Cic. Topic, c. 8; Gaius, i. 129 ; Aul. Gell. vii. 18. 



192 DE oratore; or, [b. i. 

to a state in alliance with Eome had been in servitude 
amongst us, and gained his freedom, and afterwards returned 
home, he returned by the right of postliminium, and lost the 
citizenship of this city. May not a dispute arise on a point 
of civil law respecting liberty, than which no cause can be of 
more importance, Avhen the question is, for example, whether 
he who is enrolled as a citizen, by his master's consent, is free 
at once, or Avhen the lustrum is completed? As to the case 
also, that happened in the memory of our fathers, when the 
father of a family, who had come from Spain to Rome, and 
had left a wife pregnant in that province, and married another 
at Eome, without sending any notice of divorce to the former, 
^nd died intestate, after a son had been born of each wife, 
did a small matter come into controversy, when the question 
was concerning the rights of two citizeus, I mean concerning 
the boy who was born of the latter wife and his mother, who, 
if it were adjudged that a divorce was effected from a former 
wife by a certain set of words, and not by a second marriage, 
Vwould be deemed a concubine? For a man, then, who is 
ignorant of these and other similar laws of his own country, 
to wander about the forum with a great crowd at his heels, 
erect and haughty, looking hither and thither with a gay and 
assured face and air, offering and tendering protection to his 
clients, assistance to his friends, and the light of his genius 
and counsel to almost all his fellow-citizens, is it not to be 
bought in the highest degree scandalous? 

XLI. " Since I have spoken of the audacity, let me also 
censure the indolence and inertness of mankind. For if the 
study of the law were illimitable and arduous, yet the great- 
ness of the advantage ought to impel men to undergo the 
labour of learning it; but, ye immortal gods, I would not say 
this in the hearing of Scsevola, unless he himself were accus- 
tomed to say it, namely, that the attainment of no science seems 
to him more easy. It is, indeed, for certain reasons, thought 
otherwise by most people, first, because those of old, who 
were at the head of this science, would not, for the sake of 
securing and extending their own influence, allow their art 
to be made public; in the next place, when it was published, 
the forms of actions at law being first set forth by Cneius 
Flavins, there were none who could compose a general system 
of those matters arranged under regular heads. For nothing 



C. XLII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 193 

can be reduced into a science, unless he who understands the 
matters of which he would form a science, has previously 
gained such knowledge as to enable him to constitute a 
science out of subjects in which there has never yet been 
any science. I perceive that, from desire to express this 
briefly, I have expressed it rather obscurely; but I will 
make an effort to explain myself, if possible, with more 
perspicuity. 

XLII. " All things which are now comprised in sciences, 
were formerly unconnected, and in a state, as it were, of dis- 
persion; as in music, numbers, sounds, and measures; in 
geometry, lines, figures, spaces, magnitudes ; in astronomy, 
the revolution of the heavens, the rising, setting, and other 
motions of the stars; in grammar, the study of the poets, 
the knowledge of history, the interpretation of words, the 
peculiar tone of pronunciation ; and finally, in this very art 
of oratory, invention, embellishment, arrangement, memory, 
delivery, seemed of old not to be fully understood by any, and 
to be wholly unconnected. A certain extrinsic art was therefore 
applied, adopted from another department of knowledge,^ 
which the philosophers wholly claim to themselves, an art 
which might serve to cement things previously separate and 
uncombined, and unite them in a kind of system. 

" Let then the end proposed in civil law be the preserva- 
tion of legitimate and practical equity in the affairs and 
causes of the citizens. The general heads of it are then to 
be noted, and reduced to a certain number, as few as may be. 
A general head is that which comprehends two or more par- 
ticulars, similar to one another by having something in 
common, but differing in species. Particulars are included 
under the general heads from which they spring. All names, 
which are given either to general heads, or particulars, must 
be limited by definitions, showing what exact meaning they 
have. A definition is a short and concise specification of 
whatever properly belongs to the thing which we would 
define. I should add examples on these points, were I not 
sensible to whom my discourse is addressed. I will now 
comprise what I proposed in a short space. For if I should 
have leisure to do what I have long meditated, or if any 
other person should undertake the task while I am occupied, 
^ From philosophy. 
O 



194 DE OBATORE j OR, [b. I. 

or accomplish it after my death, (I mean, to digest, first of all, 
the whole civil law under general heads, which are very few ; 
next, to branch out those general heads, as it were, into 
members; then to explain the peculiar nature of each by 
^ definition ;) you will have a complete system of civil law, 
large and full indeed, but neither difficult nor obscure. In 
the meantime, while what is unconnected is being combined, 
a person may, even by gathering here and there, and col- 
lecting from all parts, be furnished with a competent know- 
ledge of the civil law. 

XLIII. '- Do you not observe that Caius Aculeo,^ a Roman 
knight, a man of the most acute genius in the world, but of 
little learning in other sciences, who now lives, and has always 
lived with me, understands the civil law so well, that none 
even of the most skilful, if you except my friend Scsevola 
here, can be preferred to him*? Everything in it, indeed, is 
set plainly before our eyes, connected with our daily habits, 
with our intercourse among men, and with the forum, and is 
not contained in a vast quantity of writing, or many large 
volumes; for the elements that were at first published by 
several writers are the same; and the same things, with the 
^ change of a few words, have been repeatedly written by the 
i^same authors. Added to this, that the civil law may be 
more readily learned and understood, there is (what most 
people little imagine) a wonderful pleasure and delight in 
acquiring a knowledge of it. For, whether any person is 
attracted by the study of antiquity,^ there is, in every part 
of the civil law, in the pontifical books, and in the Twelve 

^ This Aculeo married Cicero's aunt by the mother's side, as he tells 
us in the beginning of the second book of this treatise, c. 1, and his 
sons by that marriage, cousins to Cicero and his brother Quintus, were 
all bred up together with them, in a method approved by L. Crassus, 
the chief character in this dialogue, and by those very masters under 
whom Crassus himself had been. B, 

2 Orellius retains hcec aliena studia in his text, but acknowledgea 
aliena to be corrupt. Wyttenbach conjectured ahtiqua studia, for 
antiquitatis studia. Ellendt observes fchat Madvig proposed JElianaf 
from Lucius ^lius Stilo, the master of Varro, extolled by Cicero, 
Brut. 56 ; Acad. i. 2, 8 ; Legg. ii. 23. See Suetonius, de 111. Gramm. 
0. 3 ; and Aul. Cell. x. 21. This conjecture, says Henrichsen, will 
suit very well with the word hcac, which Crassus may be supposed 
to have used, because ^lius Stilo was then alive, and engaged in thost- 
studies. 



a XLIV.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 195 

Tables, abundance of instruction as to ancient matters, since 
not only the original sense of words is thence understood, 
but certain kinds of law proceedings illustrate the customs 
and lives of our ancestors; or if he has a view to the science 
of government (which Scsevola judges not to belong to the 
orator, but to science of another sort), he will find it all com- 
prised in the Twelve Tables, every advantage of civil govern- 
ment, and every part of it being there described; or if 
authoritative and vaunting philosophy delight him, (I will 
speak very boldly,) he will find there the sources of all the 
philosophers' disputations, which lie in civil laws and enact- 
ments; for from these we perceive that virtue is above all 
things desirable, since honest, just, and conscientious industry 
is ennobled with honours, rewards, and distinctions ; but the 
vices and frauds of mankind are punished by fines, ignominy, 
imprisonment, stripes, banishment, and death; and we are 
taught, not by disputations endless and full of discord, but 
by the authority and mandate of the laws, to hold our appe- 
tites in subjection, to restrain all our passions, to defend our 
own property, and to keep our thoughts, eyes, and hands, 
from that of others. 

XLIV. ^' Though all the world exclaim against me, I will 
say what I think : that single little book of the Twelve Tables, 
if any one look to the fountains and sources of laws, seems 
to me, assuredly, to surpass the libraries of all the philo- 
sophers, both in weight of authority, and in plenitude of 
utility. And if our country has our love, as it ought to 
have in the highest degree, — our country, I say, of which the 
force and natural attraction is so strong, that one of the 
wisest of mankind preferred his Ithaca, fixed, like a little 
nest, among the roughest of rocks, to immortality itself, — 
with what affection ought we to be warmed towards such 
a country as ours, which, preeminently above all other 
countries, is the seat of virtue, empire, and dignity? Its 
spirit, customs, and discipline ought to be our first objects of 
study, both because our country is the parent of us all, and 
because as much wisdom must be thought to have been em- 
ployed in framing such laws, as in establishing so vast and 
powerful an empire. You will receive also this pleasure and 
delight from the study of the law, that you will then most 
readily comprehend how far our ancestors excelled other 

o2 



196 DE ORATOEE j OR, [b. I. 

uations in wisdom, if you compare our laws with those of 
their Lycurgus, Draco, and Solon. It is indeed incredible 
how undigested and almost ridiculous is all civil law, except 
our own; on which subject I am accustomed to say much in 
my daily conversation, when I am praising the wisdom of 
our countrymen above that of all otheY men, and especially 
of the Greeks. For these reasons have I declared, Scsevola, 
that the knowledge of the civil law is indispensable to those 
who would become accomplished orators. 

XLY. " And who does not know what an accession of honour, 
popularity, and dignity, such knowledge, even of itself, brings 
with it to those who are eminent in if? As, therefore, among 
the Greeks, men of the lowest rank, induced by a trifling 
reward, offer themselves as assistants to the pleaders on trials 
(men who are by them called pragmatici)} so in our city, on 
the contrary, every personage of the most eminent rank and 
character, such as that ^lius Sextus,^ who, for his knowledge 
in the civil law, was called by our great poet, 

* A man of thought and prudence, nobly wise,* 
and many besides, who, after arriving at distinction by means 

^ It appears from Quintilian and Juvenal, that this was a Roman 
custom as well as a Grecian, under the emperors ; they are also men- 
tioned by Ulpian. But in Cicero's time the Patroni causarum, or 
advocates, though they studied nothing but oratory, and were in 
general ignorant of the law, yet did not make use of any of these low 
people called Pragmatici, as the Greeks did at that time, but upon 
any doubts on the law, applied themselves to men of the greatest repu- 
tation in that science, such as the Scaevolse. But under the emperors 
there was not the same encouragement for these great men to study 
that science ; the orators, therefore, fell of necessity into the Grecian 
custom. Quint, sii. 3 : " Neque ego sum nostri moris ignarus, obli- 
tusve eorum, qui velut ad Arculas sedent, et tela agentibus submi- 
nistrant, neque idem Grsecos nescio factitare, undo nomen his Prag- 
maticorum datum est." Juv. Sat. vii. 123 : 

Si quater egisti, si contigit aureus unus, 

Inde cadunt partes ex foedere Pragmaticorum. B. 

2 As the collection of forms published by Flavins, and from "him 
called Jus civile Flavianum, soon grew defective, as new contracts arose 
every day, another was afterwards compiled, or rather only made public, 
by Sextus^lius, for the forms seem to have been composed as the dif- 
ferent emergencies arose, by such of the patricians as understood the law, 
and to have been by them secreted to extend their own influence; however, 
this collection, wherein were many new forms adapted to the cases and 
circumstances which had happened since the time of Flavins, went under 
the title of Jus Jliianim, from this ^lius here praised by Ennius. B 



C. XLVI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 197 

of their ability, attained such influence, that in answering 
questions on points of law,^ they found their authority of 
more weight than even their abihty. For ennobling and 
dignifying old age, indeed, what can be a more honourable 
resource than the interpretation of the law? For myself, I 
have, even from my youth, been securing this resource, not 
merely with a view to benefit in pleadings in the forum, but 
also for an honour and ornament to the decline of life ; so 
that, when my strength begins to fail me (for which the time 
is even now almost approaching), I may, by that means, pre- 
serve my house from solitude. For what is more noble than 
for an old man, who has held the highest honours and offices 
. of the state, to be able justly to say for himself, that which 
the Pythian Apollo says in Ennius, that he is the person 
from whom, if not nations and kings, yet all his fellow- 
citizens, solicit advice, 

* Uncertain how to act ; whom, by my aid, 
I send away undoubting, full of counsel, 
1^0 more with rashness things perplex'd to sway ; ' 

f^or without doubt the house of an eminent lawyer is the' 
\oracle of the whole city. Of this fact the gate and vestibule of 
our friend Quintus Mucins is a proof, which, even in his very 
infirm state of health, and advanced age, is daily frequented 
by a vast crowd of citizens, and by persons of the highest 
rank and splendour. 

XLVI. '' It requires no very long explanation to show why 
I think the public laws^ also, which concern the state and 
government, as well as the records of history, and the prece- 

^ The custom Respondendi de Jure, and the interpretations and de- 
cisions of the learned, were so universally approved, that, although 
uhey were unwritten, they became a new species of law, and were 
called Auctoritas, or JResponsa Prudenfum. This custom continued to 
the time of Augustus without interruption, who selected particular 
lawyers, and gave them the sanction of a patent; but then grew into 
desuetude, till Hadrian renewed this office or grant, which made so 
considerable a branch of the Roman law. B, 

2 Jura publica. Dr. Taylor, in his History of the Roman Law, p. 62, 
has given us the heads of the Roman /'if5_pw5??cwm, which were, — religion 
and divine worship — peace and war— legislation — exchequer and resfisci, 
escheats — the prerogative — law of treasons — taxes and imposts — coin- 
age — jurisdiction — magistracies — regalia — embassies — honours and 
titles — colleges, schools, corporations — castles and fortifications — fairs, 
mercats, staple — forests— naturalization. £. 



• 198 DE obatore; or, [b. i. 

dents of antiquity, ought to be known to the orator; for as 
in causes and trials relative to private affairs, his language is 
often to be borrowed from the civil law, and therefore, as we 
said before^ the knowledge of the civil law is necessary to the 
orator ; so in regard to causes affecting public matters, before 
our courts, in assemblies of the people, and in the senate, all 
the history of these and of past times, the authority of public 
law, the system and science of governing the state, ought to 
be at the command of orators occupied with affairs of govern- 
ment, as the very groundwork of their speeches.^ For we 
are not contemplating, in this discourse, the character of an 
every-day pleader, bawler, or barrator, but that of a man, 

)( who, in the first place, may be, as it were, the high-priest of 
this profession, for which, though nature herself has given 
rich endowments to man, yet it was thought to be a god that 
gave it, so that the very thing which is the distinguishing 
property of man, might not seem to have been acquired by 
ourselves, but bestowed upon us by some divinity; who, in 
the next place, can move with safety even amid the weapons 
of his adversaries, distinguished not so much by a herald's 
caduceus,^ as by his title of orator; who, likewise, is able, by 
means of his eloquence, to expose guilt and deceit to the 
hatred of his countrymen, and to restrain them by penalties ; 
who can also, with the shield of his genius, protect inno- 
cence from punishment ; who can rouse a spiritless and de- 
sponding people to glory, or reclaim them from infatuation, 
or inflame their rage against the guilty, or mitigate it, if 
incited against the virtuous ; who, finally, whatever feeling in 
the minds of men his object and cause require, can either 
excite or calm it by his eloquence. If any one supposes 
that this power has either been sufficiently set forth by those 
who have written on the art of speaking, or can be set 
forth by me in so brief a space, he is greatly mistaken, and 
understands neither my inability, nor the magnitude of the 
subject. For my own part, since it was your desire, I thought 

' f. that the fountains ought to be shown you, from which you 

^ Tanquam aliqua materies. Ernesti's text, says Orellius, has alia, 
by mistake. Aliqua is not very satisfactory. Nobbe, the editor of 
Tauchnitz's text, retains Ernesti's alia. 

2 The herald's caduceus, or wand, renders his person inviolabl©* 
Pearce. 



C. XLVII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 199 

might draw, and the roads which you might pursue, not so 
that I should become your guide (which would be an endless 
and unnecessary labour), but so that I might point out to ycu 
the way, and, as the practice is, might hold out my finger 
towards the spring."-^ 

XLYII. " To me," remarked Scaevola, '^ enough appears to 
have been said by you, and more than enough, to stimulate 
the efforts of these young men, if they are but studiously 
inclined ; for as they say that the illustrious Socrates used to 
observe that his object was attained if any one was by his 
exhortations sufficiently incited to desire to know and under- 
stand virtue ; (since to those who were persuaded to desire 
nothing so much as to become good men, what remained to 
be learned was easy ;) so I consider that if you wish to pene- 
trate into those subjects which Crassus has set before you in 
his remarks, you will, with the greatest ease, arrive at your 
object, after this course and gate has been opened to you." 
" To us," said Sulpicius, " these instructions are exceedingly 
pleasant and delightful ; but there are a few things more 
which we still desire to hear, especially those which were 
touched upon so briefly by you, Crassus, in reference to ora- 
tory as an art, when you confessed that you did not despise 
them, but had learned them. If you will speak somewhat more 
at length on those points, you will satisfy all the eagerness of 
our long desire. For we have now heard to what objects we 
must direct our efforts, a point which is of great importance ; 
but we long to be instructed in the ways and means of 
pursuing those objects." 

'' Then," said Crassus, ^' (since I, to detain you at my house 
with less difficulty, have rather complied with your desires, 
than my own habit or inclination,) what if we ask Antonius 
to tell us something of what he still keeps in reserve, and has 
not yet made known to us, (on which subjects he complained, 
a while ago, that a book has already dropped from his pen,) 
and to reveal to us his mysteries in the art of speaking T' 
" As you please," said Sulpicius, " for, if Antonius speaks, we 
shall still learn what you think." " I request of you then, 
Antonius," said Crassus, " since this task is put upon men of 

^ Ut fieri solet. Ernesti conjectures w^ c^za so^e^. Ell endt thinks the 
common reading right, requiring only that we should understand 
d commonstrantibus. 



200 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. I. 

our time of life by the studious inclinations of these youths, 
to deliver your sentiments upon these subjects which, you 
see, are required from you." 

XLYIII. " I see plainly, and understand indeed," replied 
Antonius, "that I am caught, not only because those things 
are required from me in which I am ignorant and unprac- 
tised, but because these young men do not permit me to 
avoid, on the present occasion, what I always carefully avoid 
in my public pleadings, namely, not to speak after you, 
Crassus. But I will enter upon what you desire the more 
boldly, as I hope the same thing will happen to me in this 
discussion as usually happens to me at the bar, that no 
flowers of rhetoric will be expected from me. For I am not 
going to speak about art, which I never learned, but about 
my own practice ; and those very particulars which I have 
entered in my common-place book are of this kind,^ not ex- 
pressed with anything like learning, but just as they are 
treated in business and pleadings ; and if they do not meet 
with approbation from men of your extensive knowledge, you 
must blame your own unreasonableness, in requiring from me 
what I do not know ; and you must praise my complaisance, 
since I make no difficulty in answering your questions, being 
induced, not by my own judgment, but your earnest desire." 
" Go on, Antonius," rejoined Crassus, "for there is no 
danger that you will say anything otherwise than so discreetly 
that no one here will repent of having prompted you to 
speak." 

" I will go on, then," said Antonius, " and will do what I 
think ought to be done in all discussions at the commence- 
ment; I mean, that the subject, whatever it may be, on 
which the discussion is held, should be defined ; so that the 
discourse may not be forced to wander and stray from its 
course, from the disputants not having the same notion of the 
matter under debate. If, for instance, it were inquired, ^What 
is the art of a general?' I should think that we ought to settle, 
at the outset, what a general is ; and when he was defined to 
be a commander for conducting a war, we might then proceed 
to speak of troops, of encampments, of marching in battle 
array, of engagements, of besieging towns, of provisions, of 

^ Not recorded with any elegance, but in the plain style in which 
I am now going to express myself. Ernesti. 



C. XLIX.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 201 

laying and avoiding ambuscades, and other matters relative 
to the management of a war; and those who had the capacity 
and knowledge to direct such affairs I should call generals ; 
and should adduce the examples of the Africani and Maximi, 
and speak of Epaminondas, and Hannibal, and men of such 
character. But if we should inquire what sort of character 
he is, who should contribute his experience, and knowledge, 
and zeal to the management of the state, I should give this 
sort of definition, that he who understands hy what means the 
interests of the republic are secured and "promoted^ and employs 
those means, is ivorthy to he esteemed a director in affairs of 
government, and a leader in "public councils; and I should 
mention Publius Lentulus, that chief of the senate,^ and 
Tiberius Gracchus the father, and Quintus Metellus, and 
Publius Africanus, and Caius Lselius, and others without 
number, as well of our ow^n city as of foreign states. But 
if it should be asked, ^Who truly deserved the name of a 
lawyer % ' I should say that he deserves it who is learned in \ 
the laws, and that general usage^ luhich private persons observe 
in their intercourse in the community, who can give an answer 
on any point, can plead, and can take precautio7is for the ^ 
interests of his client; and I should name Sextus iElius/ 
Manius Manilius, Publius Mucins, as distinguished in those 
respects. XLIX. In like manner, to notice sciences of a less 
important character, if a musician, if a grammarian, if a poet 
were the subject of consideration, I could state that which 
each of them possesses, and than which nothing more is to 
be expected from each. Even of the philosopher himself, who 
alone, from his abilities and wisdom, professes almost every- 
/ thing, there is a sort of definition, signifying, that he who studies 
to learn the powers, nature^ and causes of all things, divine and 
human, and to understand and explain the whole science of 
living virtuously, may justly deserve this appellation. 

" The orator, however, since it is about him that we 
are considering, I do not conceive to be exactly the same cha- 
racter that Crassus makes him, who seemed to me to in- 
clude all knowledge of all matters and sciences, under the 
single profession and name of an orator ; but I regard him 

1 Principem ilium, Nempe senates. He was consul with Cneiua 
Domitius, a.u.c. 592. Ellendt. 
^ The unwritten law. 



202 DB ORATORE j OR, [b. I. 

as one who can use words agreeable to hear, and thoughts 
adapted to prove, not only in causes that are pleaded in the 
forum, hut in causes in general. Him I call an orator, and 
would have him besides accomplished in delivery and action, 
and with a certain degree of wit. But our friend Crassus 
seemed to me to define the faculty of an orator, not by the 
proper limits of his art, but by the almost immense limits of 
his own genius; for, by his definition, he delivered the helm 
of civil government into the hands of his orator; a point, 
which it appeared very strange to me, Scsevola, that you 
should grant him ; when the senate has often given its assent 
on affairs of the utmost consequence to yourself, though you 
have spoken briefly and without ornament. And M . Scaurus, 
who I hear is in the country, at his villa not far off, a man 
eminently skilled in affairs of government, if he should hear 
that the authority which his gravity and counsels bear with 
them, is claimed by you, Crassus, as you say that it is the 
property of the orator, he would, I believe, come hither 
without delay, and frighten us out of our talk by his very 
countenance and aspect ; who, though he is no contemptible 
speaker, yet depends more upon his judgment in affairs of 
consequence, than upon his ability in speaking; and, if any 
one has abilities in both these ways, he who is of authority 
in the public councils, and a good senator, is not on those 
accounts an orator ; and if he that is an eloquent and powerful 
speaker be also eminent in civil administration, he did not 
acquire his political knowledge^ through oratory. Those 
talents differ very much in their nature, and are quite sepa- 
rate and distinct from each other; nor did Marcus Cato, 
Publius Africanus, Quintus Metellus, Cains Lselius, who were 
all eloquent, give lustre to their own orations, and to the 
dignity of the republic, by the same art and method. 

L. " It is not enjoined, let me observe, by the nature of 
things, or by any law or custom, that one man must not 
know more than one art; and therefore, though Pericles was 
the best orator in Athens, and was also for many years 
director of the public counsels in that city, the talent for 

^ Aliquam scientiam. For aliquam Manutius^conjectured illamy which 
Lambinus, Ernesti, and Miiller approve. Wyttenbach suggested alienam, 
which has been adopted by Schutz and Orellius. I have followed 
Manutius. 



C. LI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 203 

both those characters must not be thought to belong to the 
same art because it existed in the same man ; . nor if Publius 
Crassus was both an orator and a lawyer, is the knowledge 
of the civil law for that reason included in the power of 
speaking. For if every man who, while excelling in any art or 
science, has acquired another art or science in addition, shall 
represent that his additional knowledge is a part of that in 
which he previously excelled,^ we may, by such a mode of 
argument, pretend that to play well at tennis or counters,^ 
is a part of the knowledge of civil law, because Publius Mucins 
was skilled in both ; and, by parity of reasoning, those whom 
the Greeks call ^vcriKoi, ^natural philosophers,' may be re- 
garded as poets, because Empedocles the natural philosopher 
wrote an excellent poem. But not even the philosophers 
themselves, who would have everything, as their own right, to 
be theirs, and in their possession, have the confidence to say 
that geometry or music is a part of philosophy, because all 
acknowledge Plato to have been eminently excellent in those 
sciences. And if it be still your pleasure to attribute all 
sciences to the orator, it will be better for us, rather, to 
express ourselves to this effect, that since eloquence must not 
be bald and unadorned, but marked and distinguished by 
a certain pleasing variety of manifold qualities, it is necessary 
for a good orator to have heard and seen much, to have gone 
over many subjects in thought and reflection, and many also 
in reading; though not so as to have taken possession of 
them as his own property, but to have tasted of them as 
things belonging to others. For I confess that the orator 
should be a knowing man, not quite a tiro or novice in any 
subject, not utterly ignorant or inexperienced in any business 
of Ufe. 

LI. " Nor am I discomposed, Crassus, by those tragic argu- 
ments of yours,^ on which the philosophers dwell most of. all; 

^ Sciet — excellet The commentators say nothing against these futures. 

2 Duodecim scriptis. This was a game played with counters on 
a board, moved according to throws of the dice, but different from our 
backgammon. The reader may find all that is known of it in Adam's 
Roman Antiquities, p. 423, and Smith's Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Ant. 
art. Latrunculi. 

^ Istis tragcediis tuis. Persons are said tragcedias in nugis agere, who 
make a small matter great by clamouring over it, as is done by actors 
in tragedies. Proust. See b. ii. c. 51; Quint. vL 1. 36. 



204: DE oratoee; or, [b. i. 

I mean, when you said, That no man can, hy speaking, excite 
the passions of his audience, or calm them when excited, (in 
which efforts it is that the power and greatness of an orator are 
chiefly seen,) unless one who has gained a thorough insight into 
the nature of all things, and the dispositions and motives of 
mankind; on which account philosophy must of necessity he 
studied hy the orator ; a study in which we see that the whole 
lives of men of the greatest talent and leisure are spent; the 
copiousness and magnitude of whose learning and knowledge 
I not only do not despise, but greatly admire ; but, for us 
who are engaged in so busy a state, and such occupations in 
the forum, it is sufficient to know and say just so much about 
the manners of mankind as is not inconsistent with human 
nature. For what great and powerful orator, whose object 
was to make a judge angry with his adversary, ever hesitated, 
because he was ignorant what anger was, whether ^ a heat of 
temper,' or ^ a desire of vengeance for pain received V^ Who, 
when he wished to stir up and inflame other passions in the 
minds of the judges or people by his eloquence, ever uttered 
such things as are said by the philosophers? part of whom 
deny that any passions whatever should be excited in the mind, 
and say that they who rouse them in the breasts of the judges 
are guilty of a heinous crime, and part, who are inclined to 
be more tolerant, and to accommodate themselves more to the 
realities of life, say that such emotions ought to be but very 
moderate and gentle. But the orator, by his eloquence, 
represents all those things which, in the common affairs of 
life, are considered evil and troublesome, and to be avoided, 
as heavier and more grievous than they really are ; and at the 
same time amplifies and embelHshes, by power of language, 
those things which to the generality of mankind seem inviting 
and desirable ; nor does he wish to appear so very wise among 
fools, as that his audience should think him impertinent or a ' 
pedantic Greek, or, though they very much approve his under- 
standing, and admire his wisdom, yet should feel uneasy that 
they themselves are but idiots to him; but he so eff'ectually 
penetrates the minds of men, so works upon their senses and 
feelings, that he has no occasion for the definitions of philoso- 
phers, or to consider in the course of his speech, ^ whether the 
chief good lies in the mind or in the body ;' ' whether it is to be 
1 See Aristotle, Rhetor, ii. 2 ; Cic. Tusc. Qusest. iv. 



C. LII.] ON THE CHAEACTER OF THE ORATOR. 205 

defined as consisting in virtue or in pleasure ; ' ^ whether these 
two can be united and coupled together/ or ^whether/ as 
some think, ^nothing certain can be known, nothing clearly 
perceived and understood ; ' questions in which I acknowledge 
that a vast multiplicity of learning, and a great abundance of 
varied reasoning is involved : but we seek something of a far 
different character ; we want a man of superior intelligence,' 
sagacious by nature and from experience, who can acutely divine 
what his fellow-citizens, and all those whom he wishes to con- 
vince on any subject by his eloquence, think, feel, imagine, oi^ 
hope. LII. He must penetrate the inmost recesses of the mind 
of every class, age, and rank ; and must ascertain the senti- 
ments and notions of those before whom he is pleading,^ or in- 
tends to plead ; but his books of philosophy he must reserve to 
himself, for the leisure and tranquillity of such a Tusculan 
villa as this, and must not, when he is to speak on justice and 
honesty, borrow from Plato ; who, when he thought that 
such subjects were to be illustrated in writing, imagined in 
his pages a new kind of commonwealth ; so much was that 
w^hich he thought necessary to be said of justice, at variance 
with ordinary life and the general customs of the world. But 
if such notions were received in existing communities and 
nations, who would have permitted you, Crassus, though 
a man of the highest character, and the chief leader in the 
city, to utter what you addressed to a vast assembly of your 
fellow-citizens'?^ Deliver us from these miseries, deliver us 

FROM THE JAWS OF THOSE WHOSE CRUELTY CANNOT BE SATIATED 
EVEN WITH BLOOD j SUFFER US NOT TO BE SLAVES TO ANT BUT 
YOURSELVES AS A PEOPLE, WHOM WE BOTH CAN AND OUGHT TO 

SERVE. I say nothing about the word miseries, in which, 
as the philosophers say,"^ a man of fortitude cannot be; 
I say nothing of the jaws from which you desire to be 

^ Most copies have aget ; Pearce, with the minority, prefers agit. 

2 These words are taken from a speech which Crassus had a short 
time before delivered in an assembly of the people, and in which he had 
made severe complaints of the Eoman knights, who exercised their 
judicial powers with severity and injustice, and gave great trouble to 
the senate. Crassus took the part of the senate, and addressed the 
exhortation in the text to the people. Proust. Crassus was supporting 
the Servilian law. Maniitius. 

^ Ut illi aiunt. The philosophers, especially the Stoics, who affirmed 
that the wise man alone is happy. Ellendt. 



206 DE oeatore; or, [b. i. 

delivered, that your blood may not be druuk by an unjust 
sentence ; a thiDg which they say cannot happen to a wise 
man ; but how durst you say that not only yourself, but the 
whole senate, whose cause you were then pleading, were 
SLAVES 1 Can virtue, Crassus, possibly be enslaved, accord- 
ing to those whose precepts you make necessary to the science 
of an orator ; virtue which is ever and alone free, and 
which, though our bodies be captured in war, or bound with 
fetters, yet ought to maintain its rights and liberty inviolate 
in all circumstances P And as to what you added, that the 
senate not only can but ought to be slaves to the people, 
what philosopher is so effeminate, so languid, so enervated, 
so eager to refer everything to bodily pleasure or pain, as to 
allow that the senate should be the slaves of the people, 
to whom the people themselves have delivered the power, like 
certain reins as it were, to guide and govern them? 

LIII. '' Accordingly, when I regarded these words of yours 
as the divinest eloquence, Publius Rutilius Rufus,^ a man 
of learning, and devoted to philosophy, observed that what 
you had said was not only injudicious, but base and dis- 
honourable. The same Eutilius used severely to censure 
Servius Galba, whom he said he very well remembered, be- 
cause, when Lucius Scribonius brought an accusation against 
him, and Marcus Cato, a bitter and implacable enemy to 
Galba, had spoken with rancour and vehemence against him 
before the assembled people of Eome, (in a speech which he 
published in his Origines,^) Rutilius, I say, censured Galba, 
for holding up, almost upon his shoulders, Quintus, the 
orphan son of Caius Sulpicius Gallus, his near relation, that 
he might, through the memory of his most illustrious father, 
draw tears from the people, and for recommending two little 
sons of his own to the guardianship of the public, and saying 
that he himself (as if he was making his will in the ranks 
before a battle,^ without balance or writing tables,^) appointed 

^ See the Paradox of Cicero on the words Omnes sapientes liberi, 
omnes stulti servi. 

2 Mentioned by Cic. Brut. c. 30. P7'oust. He was a perfect Stoic. Ellendt. 

^ A work on the origin of the people and cities of Italy, and other 
matters, now lost. Cic. Brut. c. 85 ; Com. Nep. Life of Cato, c. 3. 

* When a soldier, in the hearing of three or more of his comrades, 
named some one his heir in case he should fall in the engagement. 

* When a person, in the presence of five witnesses and a libripens, 



C. LTV. I ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 207 

the people of Rome protectors of their orphan condition. As 
Galba, therefore, laboured under the ill-opinion and dislike 
of the people, Rutilius said that he owed his deliverance to 
such tragic tricks as these ; and I see it is also recorded in 
Cato's book, that if he had not employed children and tears, 
he would have suffered. Such proceedings Rutilius severely 
condemned, and said banishment, or even death, was more 
ehgible than such meanness. Nor did he merely say this, but 
thought and acted accordingly; for being a man, as you 
know, of exemplary integrity, a man to whom no person in 
the city was superior in honesty and sincerity, he not only 
refused to supplicate his judges, but would not allow his 
cause to be pleaded with more ornament or freedom of lan- 
guage than the simple plainness of truth carried with it.^ 
Small was the part of it he assigned to Cotta here, his sister's 
son, and a youth of great eloquence; and Quintus Mucins 
also took some share in his defence, speaking in his usual 
manner, without ostentation, but simply and with perspi- 
cuity. But if you, Crassus, had then spoken, — you, who just 
now said that the orator must seek assistance from those dis- 
putations in which the philosophers indulge, to supply himself 
with matter for his speeches, — if you had been at liberty to 
speak for Publius Rutilius, not after the manner of philo- 
sophers, but in your own way, although his accusers had 
been, as they really were, abandoned and mischievous citizens, 
and worthy of the severest punishment, yet the force of your 
eloquence would have rooted all their unwarrantable cruelty 
from the bottom of their hearts. But, as it was, a man of 
such a character was lost, because his cause was pleaded in 
I such a manner as if the whole affair had been transacted in 
the imaginary commonwealth o£ Plato. Not a single indi- 
vidual uttered a groan ; not one of The advocates gave vent 
to an exclamation; no one showed any appearance of grief; 
no one complained ; no one supplicated, no one implored the 
mercy of the public. In short, no one even stamped a foot 
on the trial, for fear, I suppose, of renouncing the doctrine of 
the Stoics. 

LIV. " Thus a Roman, of consular dignity, imitated the 

assigned his property to somebody as his heir. Gaius, ii. 101 : Aul, 
Gell. XY. 27. 

^ He was falsely accused of extortion in his province of Asia, and, 
being condemned, was sent into exile. Cic. Bnit. c. 30. Proust, 



208 DE oratore; or, [b. l 

illustrious Socrates of old, who, as he was a man of the 
greatest wisdom and had lived in the utmost integrity, spoke 
for himself, when on trial for his life, in such a manner as 
not to seem a suppliant or prisoner, but the lord and master 
of his judges. Even when Lysias, a most eloquent orator, 
brought him a written speech, which, if he pleased, he might 
learn by heart, and repeat at his trial, he wilHngiy read it 
over, and said it was written in a manner very well suited to 
the occasion ; but, said he, if you had brought me Sicyonian 
shoes,^ I should not wear them, though they might be easy 
and suit my feet, because they would be effeminate; so that 
speech seems to me to be eloquent and becoming an orator, 
but not fearless and manly. In consequence, he also was 
condemned, not only by the first votes, by which the judges 
only decided whether they should acquit or condemn, but 
also by those which, in conformity with the laws, they were 
obhged to give afterwards. For at Athens, if the accused 
person was found guilty, and if his crime was not capital, 
there was a sort of estimation of punishment; and when sen- 
tence was to be finally given by the judges, the criminal was 
asked what degree of punishment he acknowledged himself, 
at most, to deserve; and when this question was put to 
Socrates, he answered, that he deserved to be distinguished 
with the noblest honours and rewards, and to be daily main- 
tained at the public expense in the Prytaneum ; an honour 
which, amongst the Greeks, is accounted the very highest. 
By which answer his judges were so exasperated, that they 
condemned the most innocent of men to death. But had he 
been acquitted, (which, indeed, though it is of no concern to 
us, yet I could wish to have been the case, because of the 
greatness of his genius,) how could we have patience with 
those philosophers who now, though Socrates was condemned 
for no other crime but want of skill in speaking, maintain 
that the precepts of oratory should be learned from them- 
selves, who are disciples of Socrates 1 With these men I have 
no dispute as to which of the two sciences is superior, or 
carries more truth in it ; I only say that the one is distinct 
from the other, and that oratory may exist in the highest 
perfection without philosophy. 

' Shoes made at Sicyon, and worn only by the effeminate and luxu- 
rious. Lucret. iv. 1121. 



C. LV.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 209 

LY. ^^ In bestowing such warm approbation on the civil law, 
Crassus, I see what was your motive ; when you were speak- 
ing, I did not see it.^ In the first place, you were willing to 
oblige Sceevola, whom we ought all to esteem most deservedly 
for his singularly excellent disposition; and seeing his science 
undowried Eind unadorned, you have enriched it with your 
eloquence as with a portion, and decorated it with a pro- 
fusion of ornaments. In the next, as you had spent much 
pains and labour in the acquisition of it, (since you had in 
your own house one ^ who encouraged and instructed you in 
that study,) you were afraid that you might lose the fruit of 
your industry, if you did not magnify the science by your 
eloquence. But I have no controversy with the science ; let 
it be of as much consequence as you represent it ; for without 
doubt it is of great and extensive concern, having relation to 
multitudes of people, and has always been held in the highest 
honour; and our most eminent citizens have ever been, and 
are still, at the head of the profession of it; but take care, 
Crassus, lest, while you strive to adorn the knowledge of 
the civil law with new and foreign ornaments, you spoil 
and denude her of what is granted and accorded to her as 
her own. For if you were to say, that he who is a lawyer is 
also an orator, and that he who is an orator is also a lawyer, 
you would make two excellent branches of knowledge, each 
equal to the other, and sharers of the same dignity ; but now 
you allow that a man may be a lawyer without the eloquence 
which we are considering, and that there have been many 
such ; and you deny that a man can be an orator who has not 
acquired a knowledge of law. Thus the lawyer is, of himself, ^ 
nothing with you but a sort of wary and acute legalist, an 
instructor in actions,^ a repeater of forms, a catcher at sylla- 
bles ; but because the orator has frequent occasion for the aid 
of the law in his pleadings, you have of necessity joined legal 
knowledge to eloquence as a handmaid and attendant. 

^ TvLm, quum dicehas, non vidfham. Many copies omit the negative; 
an omission approved by Ernesti, Henrichsen, and Ellendt. 

2 Either Sc^evola, the father-in-law of Crassus, or Lucius Coelius 
Antipater, whom Cicero mentions in his Brutus. Prousf. 

^ PrcBco aciionum. One who informs those who are ignorant of law 
when the courts will be open ; by what kind of suit any person must 
prosecute his claims on any other person ; and acts in law proceedings 
AS another sort of prceco acts at auctions. Strehceus. 

P 



210 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. I. 

LYI. '^ But as to your wonder at the effrontery of those 
advocates who, though they were ignorant of small things, 
profess great ones, or who ventured, in the management of 
causes, to treat of the most important points in the civil law, 
though they neither understood nor had ever learned them, the 
defence on both charges is easy and ready. For it is not at 
all surprising that he who is ignorant in what form of words 
a contract of marriage is made, should be able to defend the 
cause of a woman who has formed such a contract; nor, 
though the same skill in steering is requisite for a small 
as for a large vessel, is he therefore, who is ignorant of 
the form of words by which an estate is to be divided, in- 
capable of pleading a cause relative to the division of an 
estate.^ For though you appealed to causes of great conse- 
quence, pleaded before the Centiimviri, that turned upon 
points of law, what cause was there amongst them all, which 
could not have been ably pleaded by an eloquent man un- 
acquainted with law? in all which causes, as in the cause of 
Manius Curius, which was lately pleaded by you,^ and that of 
Caius Hostilius Mancinus,^ and that of the boy who was born 
^ of a second wife, without any notice of divorce having been 
■; sent to the first^^ there was the greatest disagreement among 
the most skilful lawyers on points of law. I ask, then, how in 
these causes a knowledge of the law could have aided the orator, 
when that lawyer must have had the superiority, who was 
supported, not by his own, but a foreign art, not by know- 

^ Herctum cieri — herciscimdce families. Co-heirs, when an estate de- 
scended amongst them, were, by the Roman law, bound to each other 
by the action familice herciscundce ; that is, to divide the whole family 
inheritance, and settle all the accounts which related to it. Just. Inst, 
iii. 28. 4. The word herctum, says Festus, signifies whole or undivided, 
and CIO, to divide ; so, familiam herctam ciere was to divide the inherit- 
ance of the family, which two -words, herctum ciere, were afterwards 
contracted into herciscere : hence this law-term used here, familiam 
\erciscere. Servius has, therefore, from Donatus, thus illustrated a passage 
in Virgil, at the end of the Vlllth ^neid,— 

Citse Metium.in diversa quadrigae 
Distulerant. 

Citce, says he, is a law-term, and signifies divided, as hereto non cito, the 
inheritance being undivided. Citoi quadrigce, therefore, in that passage, 
does not mean quick or swift, as is generally imagined, but drawing 
different ways. B. 

2 See c. 39 ^ c. 40. C. 40. 



C. LVII.] ON THE CHARACTER OP THE ORATOR. 211 

ledge of the law, but by eloquence? I have often heard that, 

when Publius Crassus was a candidate for the aedileship, and 
Servius Galba, though older than he, and even of consular 
dignity, attended upon him to promote his interest, (having 
betrothed Crassus's daughter to his son Caius,) there came a 
countryman to Crassus to consult him on some matter of 
law j and when he had taken Crassus aside, and laid the affair 
before him, and received from him such an answer as was 
rather right than suited to his wishes, Galba, seeing him look 
dejected, called Jiim by his name, and asked him on what 
matter he had consulted Crassus j when, having heard his 
case, and seeing the man in great trouble, ^I perceive,' said 
he, ' that Crassus gave you an answer while his mind was 
anxious, and pre-occupied with other affairs.' He then took 
Crassus by the hand, and said, ' Hark you, how came it into 
your head to give this man such an answer "? ' Crassus, who 
was a man of great legal knowledge, confidently repeated that 
the matter was exactly as he had stated in his answer, and 
that there could be no doubt. But Galba, referring to a 
variety and multiplicity of matters, adduced abundance of 
similar cases, and used many arguments for equity against 
the strict letter of law; while Crassus, as he could not main- 
tain his ground in the debate, (for, though he was numbered 
among the eloquent, he was by no means equal to Galba,) had 
recourse to authorities, and showed what he had asserted in 
the books of his brother Publius Mucins,^ and in the com- 
mentaries of Sextus ^lius; though he allowed, at the same 
time, that Galba's arguments had appeared to him plausible, 
and almost true. 

LVII. ^^ But causes which are of such a kind, that there 
! can be no doubt of the law relative to them, do not usually 
; come to be tried at. all. Does any one claim an inheritance 
,' under a will, which the father of a family made before he had 
j a son born? Nobody; because it is clear that by the birth 
I of a son the will is cancelled. ^ Upon such points of law, 
\ therefore, there are no questions to be tried. The orator, 
accordingly, may be ignorant of all this part of the law 

II 

^ The Crassus here mentioned was Publius Crassus Dives, brother of 
Publius Mucius, Pontifex Maximus. See c. 37. Ellendt, 

^ Cicero pro Csecina, c. 25; Gains, ii. 138. 
I p2 



212 DE OEATORE ; OR, [b. I. 

relative to controversies,^ which is without doubt the far 
greater part ; but on those points which are disputed, even 
among the most skilful lawyers, it will not be difficult for 
the orator to find some writer of authority on that side, 
whichsoever it be, that he is to defend, from whom, when he 
has received his javelins ready for throwing, he will hurl them 
with the arm and strength of an orator. Unless we are to 
suppose, indeed, (I would wish to make the observation with- 
out offending this excellent man Scsevola,) that you, Crassus, 
defended the cause of Manius Curius out of the writings and 
rules of your father-in-law. Did you not, on the contrary, 
undertake the defence of equity, the support of wills, and 
the intention of the dead ? Indeed, in my opinion, (for I was 
' frequently present and heard you,) you won the far greater 
number of votes by your wit, humour, and happy raillery, 
when you joked upon the extraordinary acuteness, and ex- 
pressed admiration of the genius, of Scaevola, who had 
discovered that a man must he horn hefore he can die; and> 
when you adduced many cases, both from the laws and decrees 
of the senate, as well as from common life and intercourse, 
not only acutely, but facetiously and sarcastically, in which, 
if we attended to the letter, and not the spirit, nothing 
would result. The trial, therefore, was attended with abun- 
dance of mirth and pleasantry; but of what service your 
knowledge of the civil law was to you upon it, I do not 
understand ; your great power in speaking, united with the 
utmost humour and grace, certainly was of great service. 
Even Mucins himself, the defender of the father's right, who 
fought as it were for his own patrimony, what argument did 
he advance in the cause, when he spoke against you, that 
appeared to be drawn from the civil law? What particular law 
did he recite? What did he explain in his speech that was 
unintelligible to the unlearned ? The whole of his oration was 
employed upon one point; that is, in maintaining that what 
was written ought to be valid. But every boy is exercised 
on such subjects by his master, when he is instructed to 

^ Omnem hanc partem juris in controversiis. For in controversiis 
Lambinus and Ernesti would read, from a correction in an old copy, 
incontroversi ; but as there is no authority for this word, EUendt, with 
Bakius, prefers non controversi. With this alteration, the sense will be, 
" all this uncontroverted part of the law." 



C. LVIII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 213 

support^ in such cases as these, sometimes the written letter, 
sometimes equity. In that cause of the soldier, I presume, 
if you had defended either him or the heir, you would have 
had recourse to the cases of Hostilius,^ and not to your own 
power and talent as an orator. Nay, rather, if you had 
defended the will, you would have argued in such a manner, 
that the entire validity of all wills whatsoever would have 
seemed to depend upon that single trial; or, if you had pleaded 
the cause of the soldier, you would have raised his father, 
with your usual eloquence, from the dead ; you would have 
placed him before the eyes of the audience ; he would have em- 
braced his son, and with tears have recommended him to the 
Centumviri ; you would have forced the very stones to weep 
and lament, so that all that clause, as the tongue had 
DECLARED, would Seem not to have been written in the Twelve 
Tables, which you prefer to all libraries, but in some mere 
formula of a teacher. 

LVIII. "As to the indolence of which you accuse our 
youth, for not learning that science, because, in the first 
place, it is very easy, (how easy it is, let them consider who 
strut about before us, presuming on their knowledge of the 
science, as if it were extremely difficult; and do you yourseli 
also consider that point, who say, that it is an easy science, 
which you admit as yet to be no science at all, but say that 
if somebody shall ever learn some other science, so as to be 
able to make this a science, it will then be a science ;) and 
because, in the next place, it is fall of pleasure, (but as to 
that matter, every one is willing to leave the pleasure to 
yourself, and is content to be without it, for there is not one 
of the young men who would not rather, if he must get 
anything by heart, learn the Teucer of Pacuvius than the 
Manilian laws^ on emption and vendition ;) and, in the third 
place, because you think, that, from love to our country, we 
ought to acquire a knowledge of the practices of our an- 
cestors; do you not perceive that the old laws are either 

^ Certain legal foim-ulte, of which some lawyer named Hostihus was 
the author. Ernesti. 

2 Manilianas — leges. They were formulse which those who wished 
not to be deceived might use in buying and selling ; they are called 

actiones by Varro, K. R. ii. 5, 11 The author was Manius Manilius, 

an eminent lawyer, who was consul a.u.C. 603. Ernesti. 



214 r>E oratoee; or, [b. i. 

grown out of date from their very antiquity, or are set aside 
by such as are new"?^ As to your opinion, that men are 
rendered good by learning the civil law, because, by laws, 
rewards are appointed for virtue, and punishments for vice ; 
"i, for my part, imagined that virtue was instilled into man- 
kind (if it can be instilled by any means) by instruction 
and persuasion, not by menaces, and force, and terror. As 
to the maxim that we should avoid evil, we can understand 
how good a thing it is to do so without a knowledge of the 
law. And as to myself, to whom alone you allow the power 
of managing causes satisfactorily, without any knowledge of 
law, I make you, Crassus, this answer : that I never learned 
the civil law, nor was ever at a loss for the want of know- 
ledge in it, in those causes which I was able to defend in the 
courts.^ It is one thing to be a master in any pursuit or 
art, and another to be neither stupid nor ignorant in common 
life, and the ordinary customs of mankind. May not every 
one of us go over our farms, or inspect our country affairs, 
for the sake of profit or delight at least '?^ No man lives 
without using his eyes and understanding, so far as to be 
entirely ignorant what sowing and reaping is ; or what pruning 
vines and other trees means; or at what season of the 
year, and in what manner, those things are done. If, there- 
fore, any one of us has to look at his grounds, or give any 
directions about agriculture to his steward, or any orders 
to his bailiff, must we study the books of Mago the Car- 
thaginian,^ or may we be content with our ordinary know- 
ledge"? Why, then, with regard to the civil law, may we not 
also, especially as we are worn out in causes and public busi- 
ness, and in the forum, be , sufficiently instructed, to such 
a degree at least as not to appear foreigners and strangers in 

^ There is no proper grammatical construction in this sentence. 
Ernesti observes that it is, perhaps, in some way unsound. 

2 In jure, " Apud tribunal prsetoris." Ernesti. 

^ I translate the conclusion of this sentence in conformity with the 
text of Orellius, who puts tamen at the end of it, instead of letting it 
stand at the beginning of the next sentence, as is the case in other 
editions. His interpretation is, invisere saltern. " Though we be much 
occupied, yet we can visit our farms." 

* He wrote eight-and-twenty books on country affairs in the Punic 
language, which were translated into Latin, by order of the senate, by 
Cassius Dionysius of Utica. See Yarro, R. E. i. 1 ; and Columella, who 
calls him the father of farming. Proust. 



C. LIX.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 215 

our own country? Or, if any cause, a little more obscure 
than ordinary, should be brought to us, it would, I presume, 
be difficult to communicate with our friend Scsevola here; 
although indeed the parties, whose concern it is, bring nothing 
to us that has not been thoroughly considered and investi- 
gated. If there is a question about the nature of a thing 
itself under consideration; if about boundaries; (as we do not 
go in person to view the property itself;^) if about writings 
and bonds ;^ we of necessity have to study matters that are 
intricate and often difficult ; and if we have to consider laws, 
or the opinions of men skilled in law, need we fear that we 
shall not be able to understand them, if we have not studied 
the civil law from our youth'? 

LIX. '^ Is the knowledge of the civil law, then, of no ad- 
vantage to the orator? I cannot deny that every kind of 
knowledge is of advantage, especially to him whose eloquence 
ought to be adorned with variety of matter; but the things 
which are absolutely necessary to an orator are numerous, 
important, and difficult, so that I would not distract his indus- 
try among too many studies. Who can deny that the gesture 
and grace of Roscius are necessary in the orator's action and 
deportment? Yet nobody would advise youths that are 
studying oratory to labour in forming their attitudes like 
players. What is so necessary to an orator as the voice? 
Yet, by my recommendation, no student in eloquence will 
be a slave to his voice like the Greeks and tragedians,^ who 
pass whole years in sedentary declamation, and daily, before 
they venture upon delivery, raise their voice by degrees as 
they sit, and, when they have finished pleading, sit down 
again, and lower and recover it, as it were, through a scale, 
from the highest to the deepest tone. If we should do this, 
they whose causes we undertake would be condemned, before 

^ Quum in rem prcesenfem non venimus. We do not go ad locum, 
unde prcBsentes rem et fines inspicere possimus. EUendt. 

2 Perscriptionihus. Perscriptio is considered by Ellendt to signify 
a draft or checque to be presented to a banker. 

^ Grcecorum more et tragoedorum. Lambinus would strike out et, on 
the authority of three manuscripts ; and Pearce thinks that the con- 
junction ought to be absent. Ernesti thinks that some substantive 
belonging to GrcBcorum has dropped out of the text. A Leipsic edition, 
he observes, has Grcecorum more sophistarum et tragoedorvmi, but on 
what authority he does not know. 



216 DE ORATOKE ; OR, [b. I. 

we had repeated the pcean and the munio^ as often as is pre- 
scribed. But if we must not employ ourselves upon gesture, 
which is of great service to the orator, or upon the culture of 
the voice, which alone is a great recommendation and support 
of eloquence; and if we can only improve in either, in 
proportion to the leisure afforded us in this field of daily 
business ; how much less must we apply to the occupation 
of learning the civil law? of which we may learn the chief 
points without regular study, and which is also unlike those 
other matters in this respect, that power of voice and gesture 
cannot be got suddenly, or caught up from another person; 
but a knowledge of the law, as far as it is useful in any 
cause, may be gained on the shortest possible notice, either 
from learned men or from books. Those eminent Greek 
orators, therefore, as they are unskilled in the law themselves, 
have, in their causes, men acquainted with the law to assist 
them, who are, as you before observed, called pragmatici. 
In this respect our countrymen act far better, as they would 
have the laws and judicial decisions supported by the autho- 
rity of men of the highest rank. But the Greeks would not 
have neglected, if they had thought it necessary, to instruct 
tlie orator in the civil law, instead of allowing him a prag- 
maticus for an assistant. 

LX. '^ As to your remark, that age is preserved from soli- 
tude by the science of the civil law, we may perhaps also say 
that it is preserved from solitude by a large fortune. But 
we are inquiring, not what is advantageous to ourselves, but 
what is necessary for the orator. Although (since we take 
so many points of comparison with the orator from one sort 
of artist) Eoscius, whom we mentioned before, is accustomed 
to say, that, as age advances upon him, he will make the 
measures of the flute-player slower, and the notes softer. 
But if he who is restricted to a certain modulation of 
numbers and feet, meditates, notwithstanding, something for 
his ease in the decline of life, how much more easily can we, 
I will not say lower our tones, but alter them entirely? For 
it is no secret to you, Crassus, how many and how various 

* Pceanem aut munionem. The word munionem is corrupt. Many- 
editions have nomium, which is left equally unexplained. The best 
conjectural emendation, as Orellius observes, is iiomiim, proposed by 
a critic of Jena. 



a LX.] ox THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 2l^ 

are the modes of speaking; a yariety Trhich I know not 
whether you yourself have not been the first to exhibit to 
us, since you have for some time spoken more softly and 
gently than you used to do; nor is this mildness in your 
eloquence, which carries so high authority with it, less ap- 
proved than your former vast energy and exertion; and there 
have been many orators, as we hear of Scipio and Lselius, 
who always spoke in a tone only a little raised above that 
of ordinary conversation^ but never exerted their lungs or 
throats like Servius Galba. But if you shall ever be unable 
or unwilling to speak in this manner, are you afraid that 
your house, the house of such a man and such a citizen, 
will, if it be not frequented by the litigious, be deserted by 
the rest of mankind? For my part, I am so far from having 
any similar feeling with regard to my own house, that I not 
only do not think that comfort for my old age is to be ex- 
pected from a multitude of clients, but look for that solitude 
which you dread, as for a safe harbour ; for I esteem repose 
to be the most agreeable solace in the last stage of life. 

" Those other branches of knowledge (though they certainly 
assist the orator) — I mean general history, and jurisprudence, 
and the course of things in old times, and variety of prece- 
dents — I will, if ever I have occasion for them, borrow from 
my friend Longinus,^ an excellent man, and one of the 
gi-eatest erudition in such matters. Nor will I dissuade 
these youths from reading everything, hearing everything, 
and acquainting themselves with every liberal study, and all 
polite learning, as you just now recommended; but, upon 
my word, they do not seem likely to have too much time, if 
they are inclined to pursue and practise all that you, Crassus, 
have dictated; for you seemed to me to impose upon their 
youth obligations almost too severe, (though almost necessary 
I admit, for the attainment of their desires,) since extemporary 
exercises upon stated cases, and accurate and studied medi- 
tations, and practice in writing, which you truly called the 
modeller and finisher of the art of speaking, are tasks of 
much difficulty; and that comparison of their own composi- 
tion with the writings of others, and extemporal discussion 
on the work of another by way of praise or censure, con- 

_ ^ Ernesti supposes him to he Caius Cassius Longinus, who is men- 
tioned by Cicero, pro Planco, c. 24. 



"18 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. I. 

firmation or refutation, demand no ordinary exertion, either 
of memory or powers of imitation. 

LXI. " But what you added was appalling, and indeed will 
have, I fear, a greater tendency to deter than to encourage. 
You would have every one of us a Roscius in our profession; 
and you said that what w^as excellent did not so much attract 
approbation, as what was faulty produced settled disgust; 
but I do not think that want of perfection is so disparagingly 
regarded in us as in the players ; and I observe, accordingly, 
that we are often heard with the utmost attention, even when 
we are hoarse, for the interest of the subject itself and of the 
cause detains the audience; while ^Esopus, if he has the 
least hoarseness, is hissed ; for at those from whom nothing 
is expected but to please the ear, offence is taken whenever 
the least diminution of that pleasure occurs. But in elo- 
quence there are many qualities that captivate; and, if they 
are not all of the highest excellence, and yet most of them 
are praiseworthy, those that are of the highest excellence 
must necessarily excite admiration. 

" To return therefore to our first consideration, let the 
orator be, as Crassus described him, one who can speak in a 
manner adajDted to persuade; and let him strictly devote 
himself to those things which are of common practice in 
civil communities, and in the forum, and, laying aside all 
other studies, however high and noble they may be, let him 
apply himself day and night, if I may say so, to this one 
pursuit, and imitate him to whom doubtless the highest 
excellence in oratory is conceded, Demosthenes the Athenian, 
in whom there is said to have been so much ardour and per- 
severance, that he overcame, first of all, the impediments of 
nature by pains and diligence; and, though his voice was so 
inarticulate that he was unable to pronounce the first letter 
of the very art which he was so eager to acquire, he accom- 
plished so much by practice that no one is thought to have 
spoken more distinctly ; and though his breath was short, he 
effected such improvement by holding it in while he spoke, 
that in one sequence of words (as his writings show) two 
risings and two fallings of his voice were included ; ^ and he 

^ In one period or sentence he twice raised and twice lowered his 
voice ; he raised it in the former members of the period, and lowered 
it in the latter ; and this he did in one breath. Proust. This seems 



C. LXII.J OX THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 219 

also (as is related), after putting pebbles into his mouth, used 
to pronounce several verses at the highest pitch of his voice 
without taking breath, not standing in one place^ but walking 
forward, and mounting a steep ascent. With such encou- 
ragements as these, I sincerely agree with you, Crassus, 
that youths should be incited to study and industry ; other 
accomplishments which you have collected from various and 
distinct arts and sciences, though you have mastered them 
all yourself, I regard as unconnected with the proper business 
and duty of an orator." 

LXII. When Antonius had concluded these observations, 
Sulpicius and Cotta appeared to be in doubt whose discourse 
of the two seemed to approach nearer to the truth. Crassus 
then said, *' You make our orator a mere mechanic, Antonius, 
but I am not certain whether you are not really of another 
opinion, and whether you are not practising upon us your 
wonderful skill in refutation, in which no one was ever your 
superior j a talent of which the exercise belongs properly to 
orators, but has now become common among philosophers, 
especially those who are accustomed to speak fully and 
fluently on both sides of any question proposed. But I did 
not think, especially in the hearing of these young men, that 
merely such an orator was to be described by me, as would 
pass his whole life in courts of justice, and would carry 
thither nothing more than the necessity of his causes re- 
quired; but I contemplated something greater, when I ex- 
pressed my opinion that the orator, especially in such a 
republic as ours, ought to be deficient in nothing that could 
adorn his profession. But you, since you have circumscribed 
the whole business of an orator within such narrow limits, will 
explain to us with the less difficulty what you have settled 
as to oratorical^ duties and rules; I think, however, that 
this may be done to-morrow, for we have talked enough for 
to-day. And Sceevola, since he has appointed to go to his own 
Tusculan seat,^ will now repose a little till the heat is abated ; 

not quite correct. Cicero appears to mean, that of the two members 
the voice was once raised and once lowered in each. 

^ Orellius's text has jprceceptis oratoris ; but we must undoubtedly- 
read oratoriis with Pearce. 

2 Atticus was exceedingly pleased with this treatise, and commended 
it extremely, but objected to the dismission of Scaevola from the dis- 
putation, after he had been introduced into the first dialogue. Cicero 



220 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. II. 

and let us also, as the day is so far advanced, consult our 
health."^ The proposal pleased the whole company. Scsevola 
then said, ''Indeed, I could wish that I had not made an 
appointment with Laelius to go to that part of the Tusculan 
territory to-day. I would willingly hear Antonius;" and, as 
he rose from his seat, he smiled and added, '^ for he did not 
offend me so much when he pulled our civil law to pieces, as 
he amused me when he professed himself ignorant of it." 



BOOK II. 



THE AEGUMENT. 



In this book Antonius gives instructions respecting invention in ora- 
tory, and the arrangements of the different parts of a speech ; de- 
partments in which he was thought to have attained great excellence, 
though his language was not always highly studied or elegant. See 
Cic. de Clar. Orat. c. 37. As humour in speaking was considered as 
a part of invention, Caius Julius Caesar, who was called the most face- 
tious man of his time, speaks copiously on that subject, c. 54 — 71. 

I. There was, if you remember, brother Quintus, a strong 
persuasion in us when we were boys, that Lucius Crassus had 
acquired no more learning than he had been enabled to gain 
from instruction in his youth, and that Marcus Antonius was 
entirely destitute and ignorant of all erudition whatsoever; 
and there were many who, though they did not believe that 
such was really the case, yet, that they might more easily 
deter us from the pursuit of learning, when we were inflamed 

defends himself by the example of their " god Plato," as he calls him, 
in his book De Eepuhlicd ; where the scene being laid in the house of 
an old gentleman, Cephalus, the old man, after bearing a part in the 
first conversation, excuses himself, saying, that he must go to prayers, 
and returns no more, Plato not thinking it suitable to his age to be de- 
tained in the company through so long a discourse. With greater reason, 
therefore, he says that he had used the same caution in the case of 
Scsevola ; since it was not to be supposed that a person of his dignity, 
extreme age, and infirm health, would spend several successive days in 
another man's house : that the first day's dialogue related to his parti- 
cular profession, but the other two chiefly to the rules and precepts (»f 
the art, at which it was not proper for one of Scsevola's temper and 
character to be present only as a hearer. Ad Attic, iv. 16. £, 
^ Eetire from the heat, like Scaevola, and take rest. 



C. I.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 221 

with a desire of attaining it, took a pleasure in reporting 
what I have said of those orators ; so that, if men of no 
learning had acquired the greatest wisdom, and an incredible 
degree of eloquence, all our industry might seem vain, and 
the earnest perseverance of our father, one of the best and 
most sensible of men, in educating us, might appear to be 
folly. These reasoners we, as boys, used at that time to 
refute with the aid of witnesses whom we had at home, our 
father, Caius Aculeo our relative, and Lucius Cicero our uncle ; 
for our father, Aculeo (who married our mother's sister, and 
whom Crassus esteemed the most of all his friends), and our 
own uncle (who went with Antonius into Cilicia, and quitted 
it at the same time with him), often told us many particulars 
about Crassus, relative to his studies and learning ; and as 
we, with our cousins, Aculeo's sons, learned what Crassus 
approved, and were instructed by the masters whom he 
engaged, we had also frequent opportunities of observing 
(since, though boys,^ we could understand this) that he spoke 
Greek so well that he might have been thought not to know 
any other language, and he put such questions to our masters, 
and discoursed upon such subjects in his conversation with 
them, that nothing appeared to be new or strange to him. 
But with regard to Antonius, although we had frequently 
heard from our uncle, a person of the greatest learning, how 
he had devoted himself, both at Athens and at Rhodes, to the 
conversation of the most learned men; yet I myself also, 
when quite a youth, often asked him many questions on the 
subject, as far as the bashfulness of my early years would 
permit. What I am writing will certainly not be new to you, 
(for at that very time you heard it from me,) namely, that 
from many and various conversations, he appeared to me 
neither ignorant nor unaccomplished in anything in those 
branches of knowledge of which I could form any opinion. 
But there was such peculiarity in each, that Crassus desired 
not so much to be thought unlearned as to hold learning in 
contempt, and to prefer, on every subject, the understanding 
of our countrymen to that of the Greeks ; while Antonius 
thought that his oratory would be better received by the 
Roman people, if he were believed to have had no learning at 

^ The words cum essemus ejusmodi in this parenthesis, which all 
commentators regard as corrupt, are left untranslated. 



222 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. II. 

all ; and thus the one imagined that he should have more 
authority if he appeared to despise the Greeks, and the other 
if he seemed to know nothing of them. 

^ But what their object was, is certainly nothing to our 
present purpose. It is pertinent, however, to the treatise 
which I have commenced, and to this portion of it, to remark 
that no man could ever excel and reach eminence in eloquence, 
without learning, not only the art of oratory, but every branch 
of useful knowledge. II. For almost all other arts can sup- 
port themselves independently, and by their own resources ; 
but to speak well, that is, to speak with learning, and skill, 
and elegance, has no definite province within the limits of 

/ which it is enclosed and restricted. Everything that can pos- 
sibly fall under discussion among mankind, must be effectively 
treated by him who professes that he can practise this art, or 
he must relinquish all title to eloquence. For my own part, 
therefore, though I confess that both in our own country and 
in Greece itself, w^hich always held this art in the highest 
estimation, there have arisen many men of extraordinary 
powers, and of the highest excellence in speaking,^ without 
this absolute knowledge of everything; yet I affirm that such 
a degree of eloquence as was in Crassus and Antonius, could 
not exist without a knowledge of all subjects that contribute 
to form that wisdom and that force of oratory which were seen 
Lin them. On this account, I had the greater satisfaction in 
committing to writing that dialogue which they formerly held 
on these subjects ; both that the notion which had always 
prevailed, that the one had no great learning, and that the 
other was wholly unlearned, might be eradicated, and that I 
might preserve, in the records of literature, the opinions which 
I thought divinely delivered by those consummate orators 
concerning eloquence, if I could by any means learn and fully 
register them ; and also, indeed, that I might, as far as I 
should be able, rescue their fame, now upon the decline, from 
silence and oblivion. If they could have been known from 
writings of their own, I should, perhaps, have thought it less 

^ Multos et ingeniis et magna laude dicendi. This passage, as Ellendt 
observes, is manifestly corrupt. He proposes ingeniis magnos et laude 
dicendi ; but this seems hardly Ciceronian. Aldus Manutius noticed that 
an adjective was apparently wanting to ingeniis, but other editors have 
passed the passage in silence. 



C. III.] ox THE CHAKACTER OF THE ORATOR. 223 

necessary for me to be thus elaborate; but as one left but 
little in writing, (at least, there is little extant,) and that he 
wrote in his youth,^ the other almost nothing, I thought it . 
due from me to men of such genius, while we still retain 
a lively remembrance of them, to render their fame, if I could, 
imperishable. I enter upon this undertaking with the greater 
hopes of effecting my object,^ because I am not writing of 
the eloquence of Servius Galba or Caius Carbo, concerning 
w^hich I should be at liberty to invent whatever I pleased, as 
no one now living could confute me : but I publish an account 
to be read by those who have frequently heard the men them- 
selves of whom I am speaking, that I may commend those 
two illustrious men to such as have never seen either of 
them, from the recollection, as a testimony, of those to w^hom 
both those orators were known, and who are now alive and 
present among us. 

III. Nor do I now aim at instructing you, dearest and best 
of brothers, by means of rhetorical treatises, which you re- 
gard as unpolished ; (for what can be more refined or grace- 
ful than your own language 1) but though, whether it be, as 
you use to say, from judgment, or, as Isocrates, the father 
of eloquence, has written of himself, from a sort of bashful- 
ness and ingenuous timidity, that you have shrunk from 
speaking in public, or whether, as you sometimes jocosely 
remark, you thought one orator sufficient, not only for one 
family, but almost for a whole community, I yet think that 
these books will not appear to you of that kind which may 
deservedly be ridiculed on account of the deficiency in elegant 
learning in those who have discussed the art of speaking ; for 
nothing seems to me to be wanting in the conversation of 
Crassus and Antonius, that any one could imagine possible to 
be known or understood by men of the greatest genius, the 
keenest application, the most consummate learning, and the 
utmost experience; as you will very easily be able to judge, 
w^ho have been pleased to acquire the knowledge and theory 
of oratory through your own exertions, and to observe the 
practice of it in mine. But that we may the sooner accom- 
plish the task which we have undertaken, and w^hich is no 

^ See Bnit. c. 43, 44. 

^ Spe aggredior majore ad prohandum. That ad probandum is to be 
joined with spe, not with aggrediorj is shown by EUendt on b. i. c. 4, 



224 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. II. 

ordinary one, let us leave our exordium, and proceed to the 
conversation and arguments of the characters whom I have 
offered to your notice. 

The next day, then, after the former conversation had 
taken place, about the second hour,^ while Crassus was yet in 
bed, and Sulpicius sitting by him, and Antonius walking with 
Cotta in the portico, on a sudden Quintus Catulus ^ the elder, 
with his brother Caius Julius,^ arrived there ; and when 
Crassus heard of their coming, he arose in some haste, and 
they were all in a state of wonder, suspecting that the occa- 
sion of their arrival was of more than common importance. 
The parties having greeted each other with most friendly 
salutations, as their intimacy required, " What has brought 
you hither at last?" said Crassus; "is it anything new?" 
" Nothing, indeed," said Catulus ; " for you know it is the 
time of the public games. But (you may think us, if you 
please," added he, '' either foolish or impertinent) when Csesar 
came yesterday in the evening to my Tusculan villa, from his 
own, he told me that he had met Scsevola going from hence ; 
from whom he said that he had heard a wonderful account, 
namely, that you, whom I could never entice into such con- 
versation, though I endeavoured to prevail on you in every 
way, had held long dissertations with Antonius on eloquence, 
and had disputed, as in the schools, almost in the manner of 
the Greeks ; and my brother, therefore, entreated me, not 
being of myself, indeed, averse to hear you, but, at the same 
time, afraid we might make a troublesome visit to you, to 
come hither with him j for he said that Scsevola had told 
him that a great part of the discourse was postponed till 
to-day. If you think we have acted too forwardly, you will 
lay the blame upon Csesar, if too familiarly, upon both of 
us j for we are rejoiced to have come, if we do not give you 

^ The second hour of the morning, answering to our eight o'clock. 

2 The same that was consul with Caius Marius, when they obtained, 
in conjunction, the famous victory over the Cimbri. 

2 He was the brother of Quintus Catulus, by the mother's side, and 
about twenty years his junior. Their mother's name was Popilia. 
Ellendt. See c. 11. He was remarkable for wit, but his oratory is said 
to have wanted nerve. Brut. c. 48. Cicero with great propriety makes 
Sulpicius sit with Crassus, and Cotta walk with Antonius: for Sul- 
picius wished to resemble Crassus in his style of oratory ; Cotta pre- 
ferred the manner of Antonius. Brutus, c. ^^. 



C. IV.] ox THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 225 

trouble by our visit." lY. Crassus replied, "Whatever object 
had brought you hither. I should rejoice to see at my house 
men for whom I have so much affection and friendship ; but 
yet, (to say the truth,) I had rather it had been any other 
object than that which you mention. For I, (to speak as I 
think,) was never less satisfied with myself than yesterday; 
though this happened more through my own good nature 
than any other fault of mine ; for, while I complied with the 
request of these youths, I forgot that I was an old man, 
and did that which I had never done even when young; 
I spoke on subjects that depended on a certain degree of 
learning. But it has happened very fortunately for me, that as 
my part is finished, you have come to hear Antonius." " For 
my part, Crassus," returned Csesar, ^'I am indeed desirous 
to hear you in that kind of fuller and continuous discussion, 
yet so that, if I cannot have that happiness, I can be contented 
with your ordinary conversation. I will therefore endeavour 
that neither my friend Sulpicius, nor Cotta, may seem to 
have more influence with you than myself; and will certainly 
entreat you to show some of your good nature even to 
Catulus and me. But if you are not so inclined, T will not 
press you, nor cause you, while you are afraid of appearing 
impertinent yourself, to think me impertinent." " Indeed, 
Caesar," replied Crassus, " I have always thought of all Latin 
words there was the greatest significance in that which you 
have just used ; for he whom we call impertinent, seems to me 
to bear an appellation derived from not heing pertinent; and 
that appellation, according to our mode of speaking, is of 
I very extensive meaning; for whoever either does not discern 
what occasion requires, or talks too much, or is ostentatious 
of himself, or is forgetful either of the dignity or convenience 
I of those in whose presence he is, or is in any respect awkward 
' or presuming, is called impertinent. With this fault that 
most learned nation of the Greeks abounds ; and, conse- 
quently, because the Greeks do not feel the, influence of this 
evil, they have not even found a name for the foible; for 

I though you make the most diligent inquiry, you will not find 

II out how the Greeks designate an imi^ertinent person. But 
of all their other impertinences, which are innumerable, I do 
not know whether there be any greater than their custorfi of 
raising the most subtile disputations on the most difficult or 

Q 



226 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. II. 

unuecessarj points, in whatever place, and before whatever 
persons they think proper. This we were compelled to do by 
these youths yesterday, though against our will, and though 
we at first declined." 

V. " The Greeks, however, Crassus," rejoined Catulus, " who 
were eminent and illustrious in their respective states, as you 
are, and as we all desire to be, in our own republic, bore no 
resemblance to those Greeks who force themselves on our 
ears ; yet they did not in their leisure avoid this kind of dis- 
course and disputation. And if they seem to you, as they 
ought to seem, impertinent, who have no regard to times, 
places, or persons, does this place, I pray, seem ill adapted 
to our purpose, in which the very portico where we are 
walking, and this field of exercise, and the seats in so many 
directions, revive in some degree the remembrance of the 
Greek gymnasia and disputations 1 Or is the time unsea- 
sonable, during so much leisure as is seldom afforded us, and 
is now afforded at a season when it is most desirable ? Or are 
the company unsuited to this kind of discussion, when we 
are all of such a character as to think that life is nothing 
without these studies V "I contemplate all these things," 
said Crassus, " in a quite different light ; for I think that even 
the Greeks themselves originally contrived their palaestrse, and 
seats, and porticoes, for exercise, and amusement, not for dis- 
putation; since their gymnasia were invented many genera- 
tions before the philosophers began to prate in them ; and at 
this very day, when the philosophers occupy all the gymnasia, 
their audience would still rather hear the discus than a phi- 
losopher ; and as soon as it begins to sound, they all desert 
the philosopher in the middle of his discourse, though dis- 
cussing matters of the utmost weight and consequence, to 
anoint themselves for exercise; thus preferring the lightest 
amusement to what the philosophers represent to be of the 
utmost utility. As to the leisure which you say we have, 
I agree with you; but the enjoyment of leisure is not exertion 
of mind, but relaxation. YI. I have often heard from my 
father-in-law, in conversation, that his father-in-law Lselius 
was almost always accustomed to go into the country with 
Scipio, and that they used to grow incredibly boyish again 
when they had escaped out of town, as if from a prison, into 
^«he open fields. I scarcely dare to say it of such eminent 



C. VI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 227- 

persons, yet Scaevola is in the habit of relating that they used 
to gather shells and pebbles at Caieta and Laurentum, and to 
descend to every sort of pastime and amusement. For such 
is the case, that as we see birds form and build nests for the 
sake of procreation and their own convenience, and, when 
they have completed any part, fly abroad in freedom, dis- 
engaged from their toils, in order to alleviate their anxiety; 
so our minds, wearied with legal business and the labours of 
the city, exult and long to flutter about, as it were, relieved 
from care and solicitude. In what I said to Scsevola, there- 
fore, in pleading for Curius,^ I said only what I thought. 
' For if,' said I, ' Scaevola, no will shall be properly made but 
what is of your writing, all of us citizens will come to you 
with our tablets, and you alone shall write all our wills ; but 
then,' continued I, ' when will you attend to public business *? 
when to that of your friends '? when to your own ? when, in 
a word, will you do nothing ^ ' adding, ^ for he does not seem 
to me to be a free man, who does not sometimes do nothing ;' 
of which opinion, Catulus, I still continue ; and, when I come 
hither, the mere privilege of doing nothing, and of being 
fairly idle, delights me. As to the third remark which you 
added, that you are of such a disposition as to think life 
insipid without these studies, that observation not only does 
not encourage me to any discussion, but even deters me from 
it. For as Caius Lucilius, a man of great learning and wit, 
used to say, that what he wrote he would neither wish to have 
read by the most illiterate persons, nor by those of the greatest 
learning, since the one sort understood nothing, and the 
other perhaps more than himself; to which purpose he also 
wrote, I do not care to read Persius ^ (for he was, as we know, 
about the most learned of all our countrymen) ; hut I wish to 
read Lcelius Decimus (with whom we were also acquainted, 
a man of worth and of some learning, but nothing to Persius) ; 
so I, if I am now to discuss these studies of ours, should not 
wish to do so before peasants, but much less before you; for 
I had rather that my talk should not be understood than be 
' censured." 

^ In the speech which he made on behalf of Curius, on the occasion 
; mentioned in book i. c. 39. Proust. 

2 A learned orator, who wrote in the time of the Gracchi, and who 
is mentioned by Cicero^ Brut. c. 26. Proust. Of Decimus Lselius 
nothing is knovra. Ellendt, 

q2 



-28 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. II, 

VII. " Indeed, Catulus," rejoined Csesar, " I think I have 
already gained some profit^ by coming hither; for these 
reasons for decUning a discussion have been to me a very 
agreeable discussion. But why do we delay Antonius, whose 
part is, I hear, to give a dissertation upon eloquenoe in 
general, and for whom Cotta and Sulpicius have been some 
time waiting?" ^^ But I," interposed Crassus, ^^ will neither 
allow Antonius to speak a word, nor will I utter a syllable 
myself, unless I first obtain one favour from you." "What 
is if?" said Catulus. "That you spend the day here." Then, 
while Catulus hesitated, because he had promised to go to his 
brother's house, " I," said Julius, " will answer for both. We 
will do so ; and you would detain me even in case you were 
not to say a single word." Here Catulus smiled, and said, 
" My hesitation then is brought to an end; for I had left no 
orders at home, and he, at whose house I was to have been, has 
thus readily engaged us to you, without waiting for my assent." 

They then all turned their eyes upon Antonius, who cried 
out, " Be attentive, I say, be attentive, for you shall hear 
a man from the schools, a man from the professor's chair, 
deeply versed in Greek learning ; " and I shall on this account 
speak with the greater confidence, that Catulus is added to 
the audience, to whom not only we of the Latin tongue, but 
even the Greeks themselves, are wont to allow refinement 
and elegance in the Greek language. But since the whole 
process of speaking, whether it be an art or a business, can 
be of no avail without the addition of assurance, I will 
teach you, my scholars, that which I have not learned myself, 
what I think of every kind of sioeahing.'' When they all 
laughed, " It is a matter that seems to me," proceeded he, 
" to depend very greatly on talent, but only moderately on 
art; for art lies in things which are known; but all the 
pleading of an orator depends not on knowledge, but on 
opinion; for we both address ourselves to those who are 
ignorant, and speak of what we do not know ourselves; and 
consequently our hearers think and judge difierently at dif- 
ferent times concerning the same subjects, and we often take 
contrary sides, not only so that Crassus sometimes speaks 
against me, or I against Crassus, when one of us must of 

• ^ Navdsse operam ; that is, hene coUocdsse. Ernesti. 

2 Ironically spoken. 



C. VIII.] ON THE CHAEACTER OF THE ORATOR. 220 

necessity advance what is false; but even that each of us, at 
different times, maintains different opinions on the same 
question; when more than one of those opinions cannot pos- 
sibly be right. I will speak, therefore, as on a subject which 
is of a character to defend falsehood, which rarely arrives at 
knowledge,^ and which is ready to take advantage of the 
opinions and even errors of mankind, if you think that there 
is still reason why you should listen to me." 

YIII. " We think, indeed, that there, is very great reason," 
said Catulus, '^ and the more so, as you seem resolved to use 
no ostentation ; for you have commenced, not boastfully, but 
rather, as you think, wdth truth, than with any fanciful 
notion of the dignity of your subject." " As I have acknow^- 
ledged then," continued Antonius, '' that it is not one of the 
greatest of arts, so I allow, at the same time, that certain 
artful directions may be given for moving the feelings and 
gaining the favour of mankind. If any one thinks proper 
to say that the knowledge how to do this is a great art, I 
shall not contradict him; for as many speakers speak upon 
causes in the forum without due consideration or method, 
while others, from study, or a certain degree of practice, do 
their business with more address, there is no doubt, that if 
any one sets himself to observe what is the cause why some 
speak better than others, he may discover that cause; and, 
consequently, he who shall extend such observation over the 
whole field of eloquence, i(\'ill find in it, if not an art abso- 
lutely, yet something resembling an art. And T could wish, 
that as I seem to see matters as they occur in the forum, 
and in pleadings, so I could now set them before you just as 
they are conducted ! 

^' But I must consider my own powers. I now assert only 
that of which I am convinced, that although oratory is not 
an art, no excellence is superior to that of a consummate 
orator. For to say nothing of the advantages of eloquence, 
which has the highest influence in every well-ordered and 
free state, there is such delight attendant on the very power 
of eloquent speaking, that nothing more pleasing can be re- 
ceived into the ears or understanding of man. What music 

^ Quos ad scientiam non scepe perveniat. Ellendt encloses these words 
in brackets as spurious, regarding them as a gloss on the preceding 
phrase that has crept into the text. Their absence is desirable. 



23d DE ORATORE j OR, [i3. II. 

, can be found more sweet than the pronunciation of a well- 
ordered oration ? What poem more agreeable than the skilful 
structure of prose? What actor has ever given greater plea- 
sure in imitating, than an orator gives in supporting, truth? 
What penetrates the mind more keenly than an acute and 
quick succession of arguments'? What is more admirable 
than thoughts illumined by brilliancy of expression? What 
nearer to perfection than a speech replete with every variety 
of matter? for there is no subject susceptible of being treated 
with elegance and effect, that may not fall under the province 
of the orator. IX. It is his, in giving counsel on important 
affairs, to deliver his opinion with clearness and dignity; it 
is his to rouse a people when they are languid, and to calm 
them w^hen immoderately excited. By the same power of 
language, the wickedness of mankind is brought to destruction, 
and virtue to security. Who can exhort to virtue more 
ardently than the orator? Who reclaim from vice with 
greater energy? Who can reprove the bad with more aspe- 
rity, or praise the good with better grace? Who can break 
the force of unlawful desire by more effective reprehension? 
Who can alleviate grief with more soothing consolation? 
By what other voice, too, than that of the orator, is history, 
the evidence of time, the light of truth, the life of memory, 
the directress of life, the herald of antiquity, committed to 
immortality? For if there be any other art, which professes 
skill in inventing or selecting words ; if any one, besides the 
orator, is said to form a discourse, and to vary and adorn it 
with certain distinctions, as it were, of words and thoughts; 
or if any method of argument, or expression of thought, or 
distribution and arrangement of matter, is taught, except by 
this one art, let us confess that either that, of which this art 
makes profession, is foreign to it, or possessed in common 

[with some other art. But if such method and teaching be 
confined to this alone, it is not, though professors of other 
arts may have spoken well, the less on that account the pro- 
perty of this art ; but as an orator can speak best of all men 
on subjects that belong to other arts, if he makes himself 
acquainted with them, (as Crassus observed yesterday,) so the 
professors of other arts speak more eloquently on their own 
subjects, if they have acquired any instruction from this art; 
for if any person versed in agriculture has spoken or written 



C. X.] ON THE CnARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 231 

with eloquence on rural affairs, or a physician, as many have 
done, on diseases, or a painter upon painting, his eloquence is 
not on that account to be considered as belonging to any of 
those arts ; although in eloquence, indeed, such is the force of 
human genius, many men of every class and profession^ 
attain some proficiency even without instruction ; but though 
you may judge what is peculiar to each art, when you have 
observed what they severally teach, yet nothing can be more 
certain than that all other arts can discharge their duties 
without eloquence, but that an orator cannot even acquire 
his name without it; so that other men, if they are eloquent, 
borrow something from him; while he, if he is not supplied 
from his own stores, cannot obtain the power of speaking 
from any other art." 

X. Catulus then said, ^' Although, Antonius, the course of 
your remarks ought by no means to be retarded by inter- 
ruption, yet you will bear with me and grant me pardon; 
for I cannot help crying out, as he in the Trinummus^ says, 
so ably do you seem to me to have described the powers of 
the orator, and so copiously to have extolled them, as the 
eloquent man, indeed^ must necessarily do; he must extol 
eloquence best of all men ; for to praise it he has to employ 
the very eloquence which he praises. But proceed, for I 
agree with you, that to speak eloquently is all your own ; 
and that, if any one does so on any other art, he employs an 
accomplishment borrowed from something else, not peculiar 
to him, or his own." " The night/' added Crassus, '^ has made 
you polite to us, Antonius, and humanized you; for in yes- 
terday's address to us,^ you described the orator as a man 
that can do only one thing, like a waterman or a ^poHer, as 
Csecilius^ says; a fellow void of all learning and politeness." 
^'Why yesterday," rejoined Antonius, "I had made it my 
object, if I refuted you, to take your scholars from you;^ 
but now, as Catulus and Csesar make part of the audience, 
I think I ought not so much to argue against you, as to 

^ The reader will observe that the construction in the text is 
multi omnium generum atque artium, as EUendt observes, referring to 
Matthiae. 2 iii^ 2, 7. ^ See b. i. c. 62. 

* The writer of Comedies, Vincere Ccecilius gravitate^ Terentius arte. 
Hor. 

^ I wished to refute you yesterday, that I might draw Sc99vola and 
Cotta from you. This is spoken in jest. Proust. 



232 DB ORATORE ; OR, [b. II. 

declare what I myself think. It follows then, that, as the 
orator of whom we speak is to be placed in the forum, and 
in the view of the public, we must consider what employ- 
ment we are to give him, and to what duties we should wish 
him to be appointed. For Crassus^ yesterday, when you, 
Catulus and Caesar, were not present, made, in a few words, 
the same statement, in regard to the division of the art, that 
most of the Greeks have made; not expressing what he 
himself thought, but what was said by them ; that there are 
two principal sorts of questions about which eloquence is 
employed; one indefinite, the other definite. He seemed to 
me to call that indefinite in which the subject of inquiry is 
general, as. Whether eloquence is desirable; whether honours 
should be sought; and that definite in which there is an 
inquiry with respect to particular persons, or any settled and 
defined point; of which sort are the questions agitated in 
the forum, and in the causes and disputes of private citizens. 
These appear to me to consist either in judicial pleadings, or 
in giving counsel ; for that third kind, which was noticed by 
Crassus, and which, I hear, Aristotle^ himself, who has fully 
illustrated these subjects, added, is, though it be useful, less 
necessary." "What kind do you mean"?" said Catulus; ^^is it 
panegyric? for I observe that that is introduced as a third kind." 
XI. "It is so," says Antonius; "and as to this kind of 
oratory, I know that I myself, and all who were present, 
were extremely delighted when your mother Popilia^ was 
honoured with a panegyric by you; the first woman, I think, 
to whom such honour was ever paid in this city. But it 
does not seem to me that all subjects on which we speak are 
to be included in art, and made subject to rules; for from 
those fountains, whence all the ornaments of speech are 
drawn, we may also take the ornaments of panegyric, without 
requiring elementary instructions; for who is ignorant, 
though no one teach him, what qualities are to be com- 
mended in any person 1 For if we but look to those things 
which Crassus has mentioned, in the beginning of the speech 
which he delivered when censor in opposition to his col- 
league,'* That in those things which are bestowed on mankind 
bij nature or fortune^ he could contentedly allow himself to he 

1 B. i. c. 31. 2 i^iiet. i. 3, 1. ^ ggg ^^^6 on c. 3. 

^ Domitius Ahenobarbus. Plin. H. E". xvii. 1. 



c. xil] on the character of the orator. 233 

excelled; hut that in whatever men could procure for them- 
selves, he could not suffer himself to he excelled, he who would 
pronounce the panegyric of any person, will understand that 
he must expatiate on the blessings of fortune; and these are 
advantages of birth, wealth, relationship, friends, resources, 
health, beauty, strength, talent, and such other qualities as 
are either personal, or dependent on circumstances; and, if 
he possessed these, he must show that he made a proper use 
of them ; if not, that he managed wisely without them ; if 
he lost them, that he bore the loss with resignation ; he must 
then state what he whom he praises did or suffered with 
w^isdom, or with liberality, or with fortitude, or with justice, 
or with honour, or with piety, or with gratitude, or with 
humanity, or, in a word, under the influence of any virtue. 
These particulars, and whatever others are of similar kind, 
he will easily observe who is inclined to praise any person; 
and he who is inclined to blame him the contrary." " Why 
then do you hesitate," said Catulus, ^* to make this a third 
kind, since it is so in the nature of things'? for if it is more 
easy than others, it is not, on that account, to be excluded 
from the number." '' Because I am unwilling," replied 
Antonius, '' to treat of all that falls under the province of 
an orator, as if nothing, however small it may be, could be 
uttered without regard to stated rules. Evidence^ for in- 
stance, is often to be given, and sometimes with great exact- 
ness, as I was obliged to give mine against Sextus Titius,^ a 
seditious and turbulent member of the commonwealth ; when, 
in delivering my evidence, I explained all the proceedings 
of my consulate, in which I, on behalf of the commonwealth, 
opposed him as tribune of the people, and exposed all that I 
thought he had done contrary to the interest of the state ; 
I was detained long, I listened to much, I answered many 
objections ; but would you therefore wish, when you give 
precepts on eloquence, to add any instructions on giving 
evidence as a portion of the art of oratory ? " 

XII. "There is, indeed," said Catulus, '^ no necessity." "Or 
if (as often happens to the greatest men) communications 
are to be delivered, either in the senate from a commander in 

1 A tribune of the people, a.tj.c. 655, whom Antonius opposed about 
the Agrarian law. He is mentioned also in c. QQ, and appears to be the 
same that is said to have played vigorously at ball, ii. 62, iii. 23. 
Ellendt, See also Cic. Brut. c. 62. 



234 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. II. 

chief, or to such a commander, or from the sena^te to any 
king or people, does it appear to yoa that because, on such 
subjects, we must use a more accurate sort of language than 
ordinary, this kind of speaking should be counted as a 
department of eloquence, and be furnished with peculiar 
precepts ? " " By no means," replied Catulus ; " for an 
eloquent man, in speaking on subjects of that sort, will not 
be at a loss for that talent which he has acquired by 
practice on other matters and topics." " Those other kinds 
of subjects, therefore," continued Antonius, '' which often 
require to be treated with eloquence, and which, as I said 
just now, (when I was praising eloquence,) belong to the 
orator, have neither any place in the division of the parts 
of oratory, nor fall under any peculiar kind of rules, and yet 
must be handled as eloquently as arguments in pleadings; 
such are reproof, exhortation, consolation, all which demand 
the finest graces of language ; yet these matters need no 
rules from art." "I am decidedly of that opinion," said 
Catulus. " Well, then, to proceed/' said Antonius, '- what 
sort of orator, or how" great a master of language, do you think 
it requires to write history 1 " " If to write it as the 
Greeks have written, a man of the highest powers," said 
Catulus ; ^^ if as our own countrymen, there is no need of an 
orator ; it is sufficient for the writer to tell truth." '' But," 
rejoined Antonius, " that you may not despise those of our 
own country, the Greeks themselves too wrote at first just 
like our Cato, and Pictor, and Piso. For history was nothing 
else but a compilation of annals ; and accordingly, for the 
sake of preserving the memory of public events, the pontifex 
maximus used to commit to writing the occurrences of every 
year, from the earliest period of Roman affairs to the time 
of the pontifex Publius Mucins, and had them engrossed on 
white tablets, which he set forth as a register in his own 
house, so that all the people had liberty to inspect it ; and 
these records are yet called the Great Annals. This mode of 
writing many have adopted, and, without any ornaments of 
style, have left behind them simple chronicles of times, per- 
sons, places, and events. Such, therefore,- as were Pherecydes, 
Hellanicus, Acusilas,^ and many others among the Greeks, 

^ Of these, Acusilas or Acusilaus, a native of Argos, was the most 
ancient, according to Suidas. Ellendt. The others are better known. 



C. XIII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 235 

are Cato, and Pictor, and Piso with us, who neither under- 
stand how composition is to be adorned (for ornaments of 
style have been but recently introduced among us), and, pro- 
vided what they related can be understood, think brevity of 
expression the only merit. Anti pater/ an excellent man, 
the friend of Crassus, raised himself a little, and gave history 
a higher tone ; the others were not embellishers of facts, but 
mere narrators." 

XIII. "It is," rejoined Catulus, ^^ as you say; but Anti- 
pater himself neither diversified his narrative by variety of 
thoughts, nor polished his style by an apt arrangement of 
words, or a smooth and equal flow of language, but rough- 
hewed it as he could, being a man of no learning, and not 
extremely well qualified for an orator ; yet he excelled, as 
you say, his predecessors." " It is far from being wonderful," 
said Antonins, " if history has not yet made a figure in our 
language ; for none of our countrymen study eloquence, un- 
less that it may be displayed in causes and in the forum ; 
whereas among the Greeks, the most eloquent men, wholly 
unconnected with public pleading, applied themselves as well 
to other honourable studies as to writing history; for of 
Herodotus himself, who first embellished this kind of writing, 
we hear that he was never engaged in pleading ; yet his 
eloquence is so great as to delight me extremely, as far as I 
can understand Greek writing. After him, in my opinion, 
Thucydides has certainly surpassed all historians in the art of 
composition; for he is so abundant in matter, that he almost 
equals the number of his words by the number of his thoughts; 
and he is so happy and judicious in his expressions,^ that you 
are at a loss to decide whether his facts are set off by his 
style, or his style by his thoughts; and of him too we do not 
hear, though he was engaged in public affairs, that he was of 
the number of those who pleaded causes, and he is said 
to have written his books at a time when he was removed 
from all civil employments, and, as usually happened to every 

^ Lucius Cselius Antipater published a history of the Punic "Wars, as 
Cicero says in his Orator, and was the master of Crassus, the speaker in 
these dialogues, as appears from Cic. Brut. c. 26. Proust. 

2 Aptus et pressus. A scriptor, or orator aptus, will be one " struct^ 
et rotunda compositione verborum utens " ; and p7^essus will be, " in 
verborum circuitione nee superfluens nee claudicans." Ellendt. 



236 DE oratore; or, [b. il 

eminent man at Athens, was driven into banishment. He was 
followed loj Philistus^ of Syracuse, who, living in great fami- 
liarity with the tyrant Dionysius, spent his leism^e in writing- 
history, and, as I think, principally imitated Thucydides. 
But afterwards, two men of great genius, Theopompus and 
Ephorus, coming from what we may call the noblest school of 
rhetoric, applied themselves to history by the persuasion of 
their master Isocrates, and never attended to pleading at all. 
XIV. At last historians arose also among the philosophers ; 
first Xenophon, the follower of Socrates, and afterwards Calli- 
sthenes, the pupil of Aristotle and companion of Alexander. 
The latter wrote in an almost rhetorical manner; the former 
used a milder strain of language, which has not the anima- 
tion of oratory, but, though perhaps less energetic, is, as it 
seems to me, much more pleasing. Timseus, the last of all 
these, but, as far as I can judge, by far the most learned, 
and abounding most with richness of matter and variety of 
thought, and not unpolished in style, brought a large store of 
eloquence to this kind of writing, but no experience in plead- 
ing causes." 

When Antonius had spoken thus, "What is this, Catulusf 
said Caesar. " Where are they who say that Antonius is igno- 
rant of Greek ? how many historians has he named ! and how 
learnedly and judiciously has he spoken of each ! " '^ On my 
fword," said Catulus, " while I wonder at this, I cease to won- 
der at what I regarded with much greater wonder before, 
namely, that he, being unacquainted with these matters, 
should have such power as a speaker." " But, Catulus," said 
Antonius," my custom is to read these books, and some others, 
when I have leisure, not to hunt for anything that may 
improve me in speaking, but for my own amusement. What 
profit is there from it then 1 I own that tliere is not much ; 
yet there is some : for as, when I walk in the sun, though 
I may walk for another purpose, yet it naturally happens that 
I gain a deeper colour ; so when I have read those books 
attentively at Misenum,^ (for at Eome I have scarcely oppor- 
tunity to do so,) I can perceive that my language acquires 
a complexion,^ as it were, from my intercourse with them. 

1 He is called Pusillus Thucydides by Cicero, Ep. ad Q. Fratr. xii. 

2 A promontory of Campania, where Antonius had a country house. 

3 Ruhnken, in a note on Tim3eus*s Lex. p. 78, expresses a suspicion 



C. XV.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE .ORaTOR. 237 

But, that you may not take what I say in too wide a sense, 
I only understand such of the Greek writings as their authors 
wished to he understood by the generahty of people. If I ever 
fall in with the philosophers, deluded by the titles to their 
books, as they generally profess to be written on well-known 
and plain subjects, as virtue, justice, probity, pleasure, I do not 
understand a single word of them; so restricted are they to 
close and exact disputations. The poets, as speaking in a 
different language, I never attem^pt to touch at all ; but amuse 
myself, as I said, with those who have written history, or their 
own speeches,^ or who have adopted such a style that they 
seem to wish to be familiar to us who are not of the deepest 
erudition. XY. But I return to my subject. Do you see 
how far the study of history is the business of the orator? 
I know not whether it is not his most important business, 
for flow and variety of diction; yet I do not find it any- 
where treated separately under the rules of the rhetoricians. 
Indeed, all rules respecting it are obvious to common view ; 
for who is ignorant that it is the first law in writing history, 
that the historian must not dare to tell any falsehood, and 
the next, that he must be bold enough to tell the whole 
truth? Also, that there must be no suspicion of partiality 
in his writings, or of personal animosity'? These fundamental 
rules are doubtless universally known. The superstructure 
depends on facts and style. The course of facts requires atten- 
tion to order of time, and descriptions of countries; and since, 
in great affairs, and such as are worthy of remembrance, first 
the designs, then the actions, and afterwards the results, are 
expected, it demands also that it should be shown, in regard 
to the designs, what the writer approves, and that it should 
be told, in regard to the actions, not only what was done or 
said, but in what manner ; and when the result is stated, that 
all the causes contributing to it should be set forth, whether 
arising from accident, wisdom, or temerity; and of the cha- 
racters concerned, not only their acts, but, at least of those 

that Cicero, when he wrote this, was thinking of a passage in Plato's 
Letters, Ep. vii. p. 718, F. Greenwood. Orellius very judiciously in- 
serts tactu, the conjecture of Ernesti, in his text, instead of the old 
reading cantu, which, though Ellendt retains and attempts to defend it, 
cannot be made to give any satisfactory sense. 

^ Cicero means orators. The speeches which historians have written 
are not given as their own, but put into the mouths of others. Ellendt, 



238 PE ORATORE ; OR, [b. II. 

eminent in reputation and dignity, the life and manners of 
each. The sort of language and character of style to be ob- 
served must be regular and continuous, flowing with a kind 
of equable smoothness, without the roughness of judicial 

ppleadings, and the sharp-pointed sentences used at the bar. 

' Concerning all these numerous and important points, there 
are no rules, do you observe, to be found in the treatises of 
the rhetoricians. 

" In the same silence have lain many other duties of the 
orator; exhortation, consolation, precept, admonition, all of 
which are subjects for the highest eloquence, and yet have 
no place in those treatises on the art which are in circulation. 
Under this head, too, there is an infinite field of matter ; for 

p(as Crassus observed) most writers assign to the orator two 
kinds of subjects on which he may speak; the one concerning 
stated and defined questions, such as are treated in judicial 
pleadings or political debates, to which he that will may add 
panegyrics; the other, what all authors term, (though none 
give any explanation,) questions unlimited in their kind, with- 
out reference to time or person. When they speak of this sort 
of subjects, they do not appear to know the nature and extent 
of it ; for if it is the business of an orator to be able to speak 
on whatever subject is proposed without limitation, he will 
have to speak on the magnitude of the sun, and on the shape 
of the earth; nor will be able, when he has undertaken 
such a task, to refuse to speak on mathematical and musical 
subjects. In short, for him who professes it to be his business 
to speak not only on those questions which are confined to 
certain times and persons, (that is, on all judicial questions,) 
but also on such as are unlimited in their kinds, there can be 
no subject for oratory to which he can take exception. 

XVI. " But if we are disposed to assign to the orator that 
sort of questions, also, which are undefined, unsettled, and of 
extreme latitude, so as to suppose that he must speak of 
good and evil, of things to be desired or avoided, honourable 
or dishonourable, profitable or unprofitable ; of virtue, justice, 
temperance, prudence, magnanimity, liberality, piety, friend- 
ship, fidelity, duty, and of other virtues and their opposite 
vices, as well as on state affairs, on government, on military 
matters, on civil polity, on morality ; let us take upon us that 
sort of subjects also, ])ut so that it be circumscribed by mo- 



C. XVII.] ON THE CHAKACTER OF THE ORATOR. 239 

derate limits. I think, indeed, that all matters relative'; 
to intercourse between fellow-citizens, and the transactions of 
mankind in general, every thing that concerns habits of life, 
administration of public affairs, civil society, the common 
sense of mankind, the law of nature, and moral duties, falls 
within the province of an orator, if not to such an extent 
that he may answer on every subject separately, like the 
philosophers, yet so at least that he may interweave them 
judiciously into his pleadings; and may speak upon such 
topics as those w^ho established laws, statutes, and common- 
wealths, have spoken upon them, with simplicity and perspi- 
cuity, without any strict order of discussion, or jejune conten- 
tion about words. That it may not seem wonderful that no 
rules on so many topics of such importance are here laid 
down by me, I give this as my reason : As, in other arts, 
when the most difficult parts of each have been taught, other 
particulars, as being easier, or similar, are not necessary to 
be taught: for example, in painting, he who has learned to 
paint the figure of a man, can paint one of any shape or 
age without special instruction; and as there is no danger 
that he who excels in painting a lion or a bull, will be unable 
to succeed in painting other quadrupeds ; (for there is indeed 
no art whatever, in which everything capable of being effected 
by it is taught by the master; but they who have learned 
the general principles regarding the chief and fixed points, 
accomplish the rest of themselves without any trouble ;) so I 
conceive that in oratory, whether it be an art, or an attain- 
ment from practice only, he who has acquired such ability, that 
he can, at his pleasure, influence the understandings of those 
who listen to him with some power of deciding, on questions 
concerning public matters, or his own private affairs, or con- 
cerning those for or against whom he speaks, will, on every 
other kind of oratorical subject, be no more at a loss what to 
say than the famous Polycletus, when he formed his Hercules, 
w^as at a loss how to execute the lion's skin, or the hydra, al- \ 
though he had never been taught to form them separately." -^ 

XVII. Catulus then observed, '- You seem to me, Anto- 
nius, to have set clearly before us what he who designs to be 
an orator ought to learn, and what he may assume from 
that which he has learned without particular instruction; 
for you have reduced his whole business to two kinds oiF 



240 DE OEATORE ; OR, [b. II. 

causes only, and have left particulars, which are innumerable, 
to practice and comparison. But take care lest the hydra 
and lion's skin be included in those two kinds, and the 
Hercules, and other greater works be left among the matters 
which you omit. For it does not seem to me to be less diffi- 
cult to speak on the nature of things in general, than on the 
causes of particular persons, and it seems even much more 
difficult to discourse on the nature of the gods, than on mat- 
ters that are litigated amongst men." '' It is not so," replied 
Antonius; "for to you, Catulus, I will speak, not so much 
like a person of learning, as, what is more, one of experience. 
To speak on all other subjects is, believe me, mere play to 
a man who does not want parts or practice, and is not desti- 
tute of common literature or polite instruction; but, in con- 
tested causes, the business is of great difficulty; I know not 
whether it be not the greatest by far of all human efforts, 
where the abilities of the orator are, by the unlearned, esti- 
mated according to the result and success ; where an adver- 
sary presents himself armed at all points, who is to be at 
once attacked and repelled ; where he, who is to decide the 
question, is averse, or offended, or even friendly to your 
adversary, and hostile to yourself ; when he is either to be 
instructed or undeceived, /estrained or incited, or managed 
in every way, by force of argument, according to the cause 
and occasion ; when his benevolence is often to be turned to 
hostility, and his hostility to benevolence ; when he is to be 
moved, as by some machinery, to severity or to indulgence, to 
sorrow or to merriment, — you must exert your whole power 
of thought, and your whole force of language; with which 
must be joined a delivery varied, energetic, full of life, full of 
spirit, full of feeling, full of nature. If any one, in such efforts 
as these, shall have mastered the art to such a degree, that, 
like Phidias, he can make a statue of Minerva, he will, like 
that great artist, find no difficulty in learning how to execute 
the smaller figures upon the shield," 

XYIII. '^The greater and more wonderful you repre- 
sent such performances," said Catulus, " the greater longing 
possesses me to know by what methods or precepts such 
power in oratory may be acquired; not that it any longer 
concerns me personally, (for my age does not stand in need of 
it, and we used to pursue a different plan of speaking, as we 



C. XIX. J ox THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 241 

never extorted decisions from the judges by force of elo- 
quence, but rather received them from their hands^ aftet 
conciliating their goodwill only so far as they themselves 
would permit.) yet I wish to learn your thoughts, not for any 
advantage to myself, as I say, but from a desire for know- 
ledge. Nor have I occasion for any Greek master to repeat 
his hackneyed precepts, when he himself never saw the forum, 
or was present at a trial ; presumption similar to what is 
told of PhorDiio the peripatetic ; for when Hannibal, driven 
from Carthage, came to Ephesus as an exile to seek the pro- 
tection of Antiochus, and, as his name was held in great 
honour among all men, was invited by those who entertained 
him to hear the philosopher whom I mentioned, if he were 
inclined ; and when he had signified that he was not unwilling, 
that copious speaker is said to have harangued some hours 
upon the duties of a general, and the whole military art ; 
and when the rest of the audience, who were extremely 
delighted, inquired of Hannibal what he thought of the phi- 
losopher, the Carthaginian is reported to have answered, not 
in very good Greek, but with very good sense, that 'he had seen 
many doting old men, but had never seen any one deeper in 
his dotage than Phormio.' Nor did he say so, indeed, without 
reason; for what could have been a greater proof of arro- 
gance, or impertinent loquacity, than for a Greek, who had 
never seen an enemy or a camp, or had the least concern 
in any public employment, to deliver instructions on the 
military art to Hannibal, who had contended so many years 
for empire with the Romans, the conquerors of all nations 1 
In this manner all those seem to me to act, who give rules on 
the art of speaking ; for they teach others that of which they 
have no experience themselves. But they are perhaps less in 
error in this respect, that they do not attempt to instruct you, 
Catulus, as he did Hannibal, but boys only, or youths.'' 

XIX. " You are wrong, Catulus," said Antonius, " for I 
myself have met with many Phormios. Who, indeed, is 
there among those Greeks that seems to think any of us un- 
derstand anything ? To me, however, they are not so veiy 
troublesome; I easily bear with and endure them all; for 
they either produce something which diverts me, or make 
me repent less of not having learned from them. I dismiss 
them less contumeliously than Hannibal dismissed the philo- 

B 



./ 



242 DE ORATOEE j OR, [b. II. 

soplier, and on that account, perhaps, have more trouble with 
them; but certainly all their teaching, as far as I can judge, 
is extremely ridiculous. For they divide the whole matter 
of oratory into two parts; the controversy about the cause 
and about the question. The cause they call the matter 
relating to the dispute or litigation affecting the persons con- 
cerned ; ^ the question, a matter of infinite doubt. Respecting 
the cause they give some precepts ; on the other part of 
[pleading they are wonderfully silent. They then make five 
parts, as it were, of oratory ; to invent what you are to say, to 
arrange what you have invented, to clothe it in proper 
language, then to commit it to memory, and at last to deliver 
it with due action and elocution; a task, surely, requiring no 

_very abstruse study. For who would not understand without 
assistance, that nobody can make a speech unless he has 
settled what to say, and in what words, and in what order, 
and remembers it ? Not that I find any fault with these 
rules, but I say that they are obvious to all ; as are likewise 
those four, five, six, or even seven partitions, (since they are 
differently divided by different teachers,) into which every 

/ oration is by them distributed ; for they bid us adopt such 
an exordium as to make the hearer favourable to us, and 
willing to be informed and attentive ; then to state our case 
in such a manner, that the detail may be probable, clear, and 
concise ; next^ to divide or "Jropound the question ; to confirm 
/ what makes for us by arguments and reasoning, and refute 
what makes for the adversary; after'^this some place the 
conclusion of the speech, and peroration as it were; others 
direct you, before you come to the peroration, to make a 
digression by way of embellishment or amplification, then to 

\_sum up and conclude. JSTor do I altogether condemn these 
divisions ; for they are made with some nicety, though with- 
out sufficient judgment, as must of necessity be the case 
with men who had no experience in real pleading. For the 
precepts which they confine to the exordium and statement 
of facts are to be observed through the whole speech ; since 
I can more easily make a judge favourable to me in the pro- 
gress of my speech, than when no part of the cause has been 

.^ Reorum. This reading is very properly adopted by Orellius and 
Ellendt, in place of the old revum. Ellendt refers to c. 43 and 79 for 
the sense of reus. 



C. XX.] ox THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 243 

heard ; and desirous of information, not when I promise that 
I will prove something, but when I actually prove and 
explain ; and I can best make him attentive, not by the first 
statement, but by working on his mind through the whole 
course of the pleading. As to their direction that the state- 
ment of facts should be probable, and clear, and concise, they 
direct rightly; but in supposing that these qualities be- 
long more peculiarly to the statement of facts than to the 
whole of the speech, they seem to me to be greatly in error ; 
and their whole niistake lies assuredly in this, that they think 
oratory an art or science, not unlike other sciences, such as 
Crassus said yesterday might be formed from the civil law 
itself; so that the general heads of the subject must first 
be enumerated, when it is a fault if any head be omitted ; 
next, the particulars under each general head, when it is 
a fault if any particular be either deficient or redundant; 
then the definitions of all the terms, in which there ought to 
be nothing either wanting or superfluous. 

XX. '' But if the more learned can attain this exactness in 
the civil law, as well as in other studies of a small or moderate 
extent, the same cannot, I think, be done in an afiair of this 
compass and magnitude. If, however, any are of opinion 
that it can be done, they must be introduced to those who 
profess to teach these things as a science; they will find 
everything ready set forth and complete ; for there are books) 
without number on these subjects, neither concealed nor' 
obscure. But let them consider what they mean to do; 
whether they will take up arms for sport or for real warfare; 
for with us a regular engagement and field of battle require 
one thing, tjie parade and school of exercise another. Yet 
preparatory exercise in arms is of some use both to the gladi- 
ator and the soldier ; but it is a bold and ready mind, acute 
and quick at expedients, that renders men invincible, and 
certainly not less efiectively if art be united with it. 

" I will now, therefore, form an orator for you, if I can ; com- 
mencing so as" to ascertain, first of all, what he is able to do. 
Let him have a tincture of learning; let him have heard and 
read something; let him have received those very instruc- 
tions in rhetoric to which I have alluded. I will try what 
becomes him; what he can accomplish with his voice, his 
lungs, his breath, and his tongue. If I conceive that he may 

r2 



244 DE ORATOEE j OR, [b. II. 

reach the level of eminent speakers, I will not only exhort 
him to persevere in labour, but, if he seem to me to be a 
good man,^ will entreat him; so much honour to the w^hole 
community do I think that there is in an excellent orator, 
who is at the same time a good man. But if he shall 
appear likely, after he has done his utmost in every way, to 
be numbered only among tolerable speakers, I will allow him 
to act as he pleases, and not be very troublesome to him. 
But if he shall be altogether unfit for the profession, and 
wanting in sense, I will advise him to make no attempts, or 
to turn himself to some other pursuit. For neither is he, 
who can do excellently, to be left destitute of encouragement 
from us, nor is he, who can do some little, to be deterred; 
because one seems to me to be the part of a sort of divinity; the 
other, either to refrain from what you cannot do extremely 
well, or to do what you can perform not contemptibly, is the 
part of a i-easonable human being ; but the conduct of the 
third character, to declaim, in spite of decency and natural 
deficiency, is that of a man who, as you said, Catulus, of a 
certain haranguer, collects as many witnesses as possible of his 
folly by a proclamation from himself Of him then, who 
shall prove such as to merit our exhortation and encourage- 
ment, let me so speak as to communicate to him only what 
experience has taught myself, that, under my guidance, he 
may arrive at that point which I have reached without any 
guide ; for I can give him no better instructions. 

XXI. " To commence then, Catulus, by taking an example 
from our friend Sulpicius here; I first heard him, when he was 
but a youth, in a cause of small importance ; he was possessed 
of a voice, figure, deportment, and other qualifications suited 
for the profession which we are considering. His mode of 
speaking was quick and hurried, which w^as owing to his 
genius; his style animated and somewhat too redundant, 
which was owing to his youth. I was very far from enter-- 

^ Cato defined an orator mr bonus dicendi peritus. Cicero in this 
passage, under the character of Antonius, and in his own person, De 
Inv. i. 3, 4, signifies that though he thinks a good character of great 
importance in an orator, he does not deny that much eloquence may at 
times be found in a man of bad character. Cato and Cicero spoke each 
according to the character of his own age. Quintilian, xii. 1, goes back 
^ to the opinion of Cato. Aristotle had previously required good morals 
in an orator, Rhet. i. 2, 4 ; ii. 1, 5. Ellendt. . 



C. XXII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 245 

taining a slight opinion of him, since I like fertiHty to show 
itself in a young man ; for, as in vines, those branches which 
have spread too luxuriantly are more easily pruned than new 
shoots are produced by culture if the stem is defective ; so I 
would wish there to be that in a youth from which I may 
take something away. The sap cannot be enduring in that 
which attains maturity too soon. I immediately saw his 
ability ; nor did I lose any time, but exhorted him to consider 
the forum as his school for improving himself, and to choose 
whom he pleased for a master ; if he would take my advice, 
Lucius Crassus. To this advice he eagerly listened, and assured 
me that he would act accordingly ; and added also, as a compli- 
ment, that I too should be a master to him. Scarce a year 
had passed from the time of this conversation and recom- 
mendation of mine, when he accused Caius Norbanus,^ and I 
defended him. It is incredible what a difference there appeared 
to me between him as he was then and as he had been a year 
before; nature herself led him irresistibly into the magnificent 
and noble style of Crassus ; but he could never have arrived 
at a satisfactory degree of excellence in it,' if he had not 
directed his efforts, by study and imitation, in the same 
course in which nature led him, so as intently to contemplate 
Crassus with his whole mind and faculties. 

XXII. " Let this, then, be the first of my precepts, to 
point out to the student whom he should imitate, and in such 
a manner that he may most carefully copy the chief excellen- 
cies of him whom he takes for his model. Let practice then 
follow, by which he may represent in his imitation the exact 
resemblance of him whom he chose as his pattern; not as 
I have known many imitators do, who endeavour to acquire 
by imitation what is easy, or what is remarkable, or almost 
faulty; for nothing is easier than to imitate any person's 
dress, or attitude, or carriage ; or if there is anything offensive 
in a character, it is no very difficult matter to adopt it, and be 
offensive in the same way ; in like manner as that Fusius, who 
even now, though he has lost his voice, rants on public topics, 
could never attain that nervous style of speaking which Caius 
Fimbria had, though he succeeds in imitating his distortion of 
features and broad pronunciation ; but he neither knew how to 
choose a pattern whom he would chiefly resemble, and in him 
^ See c. 47. 



246 DE oratore; or, [b. ii. 

that he did choose, he preferred copying the blemishes. But he 
who shall act as he ought, must first of all be very careful in 
making this choice, and must use the utmost diligence to 
attain the chief excellencies of him whom he has approved. 

" What, let me ask, do you conceive to be the reason why 
almost every age has produced a' peculiar style of speaking ] 
a matter on which we cannot so easily form a judgment in 
regard to the orators of our own country, (because they 
have, to say the truth, left but few writings from which such 
judgment might be formed,) as those of the Greeks, from 
whose writings it may be understood what was the character 
and tendency of eloquence in each particular age. The most 
ancient, of whom there are any works extant, are Pericles ^ 
and Alcibiades,^ and, in the same age, Thucydides, writers 
perspicacious, pointed, concise, abounding more in thoughts 
than in words. It could not possibly have happened that 
they should all have the same character, unless they had pro- 
posed to themselves some one example for imitation. These 
were followed in order of time by Critias, Theramenes, and 
Lysias. There are extant many writings of Lysias, some of 
Critias j^ of Theramenes^ we only hear. They all still re- 
tained the vigorous style of Pericles, but had somewhat more 
exuberance. Then behold Isocrates arose, from whose school,^ 

^ Cicero, Brut, c 7, says that some conipositions were in circulation 
under the name of Pericles ; and Quintilian, iii. 1, 12, looking to that 
observation of Cicero, tacitly assents to those who denied the genuine- 
ness of those compositions. See also Quint, x. 2, 22; 10, 49. EllevLdt. 

2 That Alcibiades left nothing in writing, though he had great repu- 
tation as a speaker, seems to be rightly inferred by Ruhnken from 
Demosth. De Cor. c. 40. Thucydides is here mentioned among orators, 
on account of the orations which he inserted in his history. Ellendt. 

^ He wrote not only orations, which are mentioned by Dionys. 
Halicarn. de Lysia jud. c. 2, cf. de Is£eo, c. 2, by Phrynichus, ap. Phot, 
cod. 158, and by others, but also tragedies, elegies, and other works. 
That he was eloquent and learned we are told by Cicero, De Or. iii, 34, 
Brut. c. 7. Henrichsen. The remains of his writings were collected by 
Bach, 1&27. Ellendt. 

* The eloquence of Theramenes is mentioned by Cicero, iii. 16, 
Brut. c. 7. The writings which Suidas enumerates as being his were 
doubtless spurious. See Ruhnken, Hist. Crit. Or. Gr. p. xl. Ellendt. 

^ The words magister istorum omnium, which, though retained by 
Orellius, are pronounced spurious by Lambinus, Ernesti, Ruhnken, 
Schutz, and Ellendt, are left untranslated. '^ They cannot be Cicero's 
words," says Ellendt, '' even though they are found quoted by Nonius, 
p. 344." 



C. XXIII.] ON THE CHARACTER OP THE ORATOR. 247 

as from the Trojan horse, none but real heroes proceeded; 
but some of them were desirous to be distinguished on parade, 
some in the field of battle. XXIII. Accordingly those 
Theopompi, Ephori, Philisti,^ Naucratse,^ and many others, 
differ in genius, but in their manner bear a strong resem- 
blance both to each other and to their master; and those 
who applied themselves to causes, as Demosthenes, Hyperides, 
^schines, Lycurgus, Dinarchus, and a multitude of others, 
although they were dissimilar in abilities one to another, 
yet were all engaged in imitating the same kind of natural 
excellence ; and as long as the imitation of their manner 
lasted, so long did that character and system of eloquence 
prevail. Afterwards, when these were dead, and all recollec- 
tion of them grew gradually obscure, and at last vanished, 
more lax and remiss modes of speaking prevailed. Subse- 
quently Demochares, who, they say, was the son of Demo- 
sthenes' sister and the famous Demetrius Phalereus, the most 
polished of all that class, in my opinion, and others of like 
talents, arose; and if we choose to pursue the list: down to 
the present times, we shall understand, that, as at this day 
all Asia imitates the famous Menecles of Alabanda, and his 
brother Hierocles, to both of whom we have listened, so there 
has always been some one whom the generality desired to 
resemble. 

" Whoever, then, shall seek to attain such resemblance, 
let him endeavour to acquire it by frequent and laborious 
exercise, and especially by composition ; and if our friend 
Sulpicius would practise this, his language would be more 
compact; for there is now in it at times, as farmers say of their 

* Henrichsen and Ellendt read Philisci. Philistus, apparently, from 
the way in which he is mentioned in c. 13, has, as Ellendt observes, no 
place here. " Philiscus of Miletijs, a disciple of Isocrates (see Anon. 
Vit. Isocr.), and master of Timseus the historian (see Suidas, under 
Philiscus and Timaeus), wrote a treatise on rhetoric, orations, and a 
life of Lycurgus, noticed by Olympiodorus in Comment, ad Plat. Gorg. 
and other works. See Rnhnken, Hist. Crit. Gr. Or. p. Ixxxiii. Goell. 
de Situ et Orig. Syracus. p. 114." Henrichsen. 

^ Naucrates, a native of Erythrae, called 'icroKpdrovs kraipos by Dio- 
nysius Halicarnassensis, Rhet. vi. 1, was distinguished for the composi- 
tion of funeral orations. He seems also to have written on "rhetoric. 
See Cicero, De Orat. iii. 44 ; Brut. 51 ; Quintil. iii. 6, 3 ; also Taylor, 
Lectt. Lys. c. 3, p. 232 ; Ruhnk. Hist. Crit. Or. Gr. p. Ixxxiv. Hen- 
richsen. 



24:8 DE ORATOREj OR, [b. IL 

corn when in the blade, amidst the greatest fertility, a sort of 
luxuriance which ought to be, as it were, eaten down ^ by the 
use of the pen." Here Sulpicius observed, '^ You advise me 
rightly, and I am obliged to you ; but I think that even you, 
x4.ntonius, have never written much." " As if," rejoined An- 
tonius, " I could not direct others in matters in which I am 
deficient myself; but. indeed, I am supposed not to write 
even my own accounts. But in this particular a judgment 
may be formed from my circumstances, and in the other 
from my ability in speaking, however small it be, what I do 
in either way. We see, however, that there are many who 
imitate nobody, but attain what they desire by their own 
natural powers, without resembling any one ; a fact of which 
an instance may be seen in you, Ceesar and Cotta; for one of 
you has acquired a kind of pleasing humour and wit, unusual 
in the orators of our country; the other an extremely keen 
and subtle species of oratory. Nor does Curio, who is about 
your age, and the son of a father who was, in my opinion, 
very eloquent for his time, seem to me to imitate any one 
much; but by a certain force, elegance, and copiousness of 
expression, has formed a sort of style and character of elo- 
quence of his own ; of which I was chiefly enabled to judge 
in that cause which he pleaded against me before the Cen- 
tumviri, in behalf of the brothers Cossi, and in which no 
quality was wanting in him that an orator, not merely of 
fluency, but of judgment, ought to possess. 

XX I Y. '^ But to conduct, at length, him whom we are 
forming to the management of causes, and those in which 
there is considerable trouble, judicial trials, and contested 
suits, (somebody will perhaps laugh at the precept which I 
am going to give, for it is not so much sagacious as necessary, 
and seems rather to proceed from a monitor who is not quite 
a fool, than from a master of profound learning,) our first 

^ This is one of Virgil's directions to the farmer in the first Georgic, 
where he gives the reason for it, 

Quid, qui ne gravidis procumbat culmus aristis, 
Luxuriem segetum tenera depascit in herba, 
Cum primum sulcos eequant sata? — Georg. i. 114. 
And Pliny, 1. 18 : " Luxuries segetum castigatur dente pecoris, in 
herba duntaxat, et depastae quidem vel ssepius nullam in spica inju- 
riam sentiunt : ita juvenilis ubertas et luxuries orationis stylo et 
assiduitate scribendi quasi absumitur et reprimitur." — B. 



C. XXIV.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 249 

precept for him shall be, That whatever causes he undertakes 
to plead, he must acquire a minute and thorough knowledge 
of them. This is not a precept laid down in the schools ; for 
easy causes are given to boys. ^ The law forbids a stranger 
to ascend the wall ; he ascends it ; he beats back the enemy ; 
he is accused.' It is no trouble to understand such a cause 
as this. They are right, therefore, in giving no precepts about 
learning the cause ; for such is generally the form of causes in 
the schools. But in the forum, wills, evidence, contracts, 
covenants, stipulations, relationship by blood, by afi&nity, 
decrees, opinions of lawyers, and even the lives and characters 
of those concerned in the cause, are all to be investigated ; 
and by negligence in these particulars we see many causes 
lost, especially those relative to private concerns, as they are 
often of greater intricacy. Thus some, while they would 
have their business thought very extensive, that they may 
seem to fly about the whole forum, and to go from one cause 
to another, speak upon causes which they have not mastered, 
whence they incur much censure ; censure for negligence, if 
they voluntarily undertake the business, or for perfidiousness, 
if they undertake it under any engagement ;^ but such censure 
is assuredly of worse consequence than they imagine, since- 
nobody can possibly speak on a subject which he does not 
understand, otherwise than to his own disgrace; and thus, 
while they despise the imputation of ignorance, which is in 
reality the greater fault, they incur that of stupidity also, 
which they more anxiously avoid. 

" It is my custom to use my endeavour, that every one of 
my clients may give me instructions in his own affairs him- 
self, and that nobody else be present, so that he may speak 
with the greater freedom. ^ I am accustomed also to plead to 
him the cause of his adversary, in order to engage him to 
plead his own, and state boldly what he thinks of his own 
case. When he is gone, I conceive myself in three characters, 

^ Magna offensio vel negligentice, susceptis rebus, vel perfidice, receptis. 
Recipere is used with a reference to others, by whom we allow some 
duty to be laid upon us ; suscipere regards only ourselves. Ellendt. 

2 Inertia. This passage puzzled Lambinus and others, who did not 
see how the reproach of inertia in an orator could be greater than that 
of tarditas, or stupidity. But inertia here . signifies artis ignorantiay 
ignorance of his art, which is doubtless the greatest fault in an orator. 
Verhurg. 



250 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. II. 

my own, that of the adversary, and that of the judge. What- 
ever circumstance is such as to promise more support or as- 
sistance than obstruction, I resolve to speak upon it ; where- 
ever I find more harm than good, I set aside and totally 
reject that part entirely; and thus I gain this advantage, 
that I consider at one time what I shall say, and say it at 
another; two things which most speakers, relying upon 
their genius, do at one and the same time; but certainly 
those very persons would speak considerably better, if they 
would but resolve to take one time for premeditation, and 
another for speaking. 

*^ When I have acquired a thorough understanding of the 
business and the cause, it immediately becomes my con- 
sideration what ground there may be for doubt. For of all 
points that are disputed among mankind, whether the case is 
of a criminal nature, as concerning an act of violence ; or 
controversial, as concerning an inheritance; or deliberative, 
as on going to war ; or personal, as in panegyric ; or argu- 
mentative, as on modes of life ; there is nothing iu which 
the inquiry is not either what has been done, or is being 
done, or will be done, or of what nature a thing is, or how it 
should be designated. 

XXY. " Our causes, such at least as concern <;riminal 
matters, are generally defended by the plea of not guilty ; for 
in charges of extortion of money, which are the most im- 
portant, the facts are almost all to be denied ; and in those of 
bribery to procure offices, it is seldom in our power to distin • 
guish munificence and liberality from corruption and criminal 
largess. In accusations of stabbing, or poisoning, or embezzle- 
ment of the public money, we necessarily deny the charge. 
On trials, therefore, the first kind of causes is that which 
arises from dispute as to the fact. In deliberations, the dis- 
cussion generally springs from a question as to what is to be 
done, rarely about anything present or already done. But 
oftentimes the question is not whether a thing is a fact or not, 
but of what nature it is ; as when the consul. Gains Carbo, in 
my hearing, defended the cause of Opimius before the people, 
he denied no circumstance of the death of Cains Gracchus, but 
maintained that it was a lawful act for the good of his country ; 
or, as when Publius Africanus replied to the same Garbo, 
(then tribune of the people, engaging in political affairs with 



J. XXVI. J ox THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 251 

very different views/ and asking a question about the death of 
Tiberius Gracchus,) 'that he seemed to have been lawfully put 
to death,' But every thing may be asserted to have been done 
lawfully, which is of such a kind that it may be said that it 
ought to have been done, or was properly or necessarily done, 
or done unawares, or by accident. Then the question, ' what 
a thing should be called,' arises when there is a dispute by 
what term an act should be designated; as was the great 
point of dispute between myself and our friend Sulpicius in 
iSi orbanus's cause ; for though I admitted most of the charges 
made by him on the other side, I still denied that treason 
had been committed by Norbanus; on the signification of 
which word, by the Apuleian law,^ the whole cause depended. 
And in this species of causes some lay it down as a rule, that 
both parties should define clearly and briefly the term that 
gives rise to the question. This seems to me extremely 
puerile ; for it is quite a different thing from defining words, 
when any dispute arises among the learned about matters 
relating to science; as when it is inquired, what is an art, 
what is a law, what is a state? On which occasions reason and 
learning direct, that the whole force of the thing which you 
define should be expressed in such a manner that there be 
nothing omitted or supei-fluous ; but this neither Sulpicius did 
in that cause, nor did I attempt to do it ; for each of us, to the 
best of our abilities, enlarged with the utmost copiousness of 
language upon what it was to commit treason. Since, in the 
first place, a definition, if one word is objectionable, or may be 
added or taken away, is often wrested out of our hands ; and 
in the next, the very practice itself savours of school learning 
and almost puerile exercise ; and besides, it cannot penetrate 
into the mind and understanding of the judge, for it glides 
off.before it has made any impression. 

XXYI. " But in that kind of causes in which it is disputed 
of what nature any thing is, the contest often arises from 
the interpretation of writing ; when there can be no contro- 
versy but about something that is doubtful. For even the 
case, in which the written letter differs from the intention, 

^ Because he was then attached to the party of the Gracchi. Proust. 

^ A law of Lucius Apuleius Saturninus, tribune of the people, a.u.C. 
652. It is also mentioned in c. 49. But neither the cause nor subject 
of it is at all known. EllendU 



252 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. II. 

involves a species of doubt, which is cleared up when the 
words which are wanting are supplied ; and such addition 
being made, it is maintained that the intention of the writ- 
ing was clear ; and if any doubt arises from contradictory 
writings, it is not a new kind of controversy that arises, 
but a cause of the former sort is doubled ;^ and this can 
either never be determined, or must be so determined, 
that by supplying the omitted words, the writing which 
we defend, whichsoever of the two it is, may be rendered 
complete. Thus, of those causes which arise from a contro- 
versy about a writing, when anything is expressed ambi- 
guously, there exists but one kind. But as there are many 
sorts of ambiguities, (which they who are called logicians 
seem to me to understand better than other men; while 
those of our profession, who ought to know them full as well, 
seem to be ignorant of them,) so that is the most frequent 
in occurrence, either in discourse or writing, when a question 
arises from a word or words being left out. They make 
another mistake when they distinguish this kind of causes, 
which consist in the interpretation of writing, from those in 
which it is disputed of what nature a thing is; for there is 
nowhere so much dispute respecting the exact nature of a 
thing as in regard to writing, which is totally separated from 
controversy concerning fact. There are in all, therefore, three 
sorts of matters, which may possibly fall under doubt and 
discussion ; what is now done, what has been done, or what 
is to be done; what the nature of a thing is, or how it 
should be designated; for as to the question which some 
Greeks add, whether a thing be rightly done, it is wholly 
included in the inquiry, what the nature of the thing is. 

XXVII. " But to return to my own method. When, after 
hearing and understanding the nature of a cause, I proceed 
to examine the subject matter of it, I settle nothing until I 
have ascertained to what point my whole speech, bearing 

immediately on the question and case, must be directed. I 
then very diligently consider two other points ; the one, how 
to recommend myself, or those for whom I plead ; the other, 

/ how to sway the minds of those before whom I speak to that 

^ Superioris generis causa duplicatur, Ellendt explains these words 
thus : "in the same cause, the allegations of the two parties are judged 
as two separate questions of the same kind." 



C. XXVII.] ox THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 253 

which I desire. Thus the whole business of speaking rests! 
upon three things for success in persuasion; that we prove 
what we maintain to be true ; that we conciliate those who 1 
hear; that we produce in their minds whatever feeling our' 
cause may require. For the purpose of proof, two kinds of] 
matter present themselves to the orator; one, consisting of 
such things as are not invented by him, but, as appertaining 
to the cause, are judiciously treated by him, as deeds, testi- 
monies, covenants, contracts, examinations, laws, acts of the 
senate, precedents, decrees, opinions of lawyers, and whatever 
else is not found out by the orator, but brought under his 
notice by the cause and by his clients ; the other, consist- 
ing entirely in the orator's own reasoning and arguments : 
so that, as to the former head, he has only to handle the 
arguments with which he is furnished ; as to the latter, to 
invent arguments likewise. Those who profess to teach elo- 
quence, after dividing causes into several kinds, suggest 
a number of arguments for each kind ; which method, though 
it may be better adapted to the instruction of youth, in order 
that when a case is proposed to them they may have some- 
thing to which they may refer, and from whence they may 
dmw forth arguments ready prepared; yet it shows a slow- 
ness of mind to pursue the rivulets, instead of seeking for 
the fountain-head ; and it becomes our age and experience 
to derive what we want to know from the source, and to ascer- 
tain the spring from which everything proceeds. 

" But that first kind of matters which are brought before 
the orator, ought to be the constant subject of our contem- 
plation for general practice in affairs of that nature. For in 
support of deeds and against them, for and against evidence, 
for and against examinations by torture, and in other sub- 
jects of that sort, we usually speak either of each kind in 
general and abstractedly, or as confined to particular occa- 
sions, persons, and causes ; and such common-places (I speak 
to you, Cotta and Sulpicius) you ought to keep ready and 
prepared with much study and meditation. It would occupy 
too much time at present to show by what means we should 
confirm or invalidate testimony, deeds, and examinations. 
These matters are all to be attained with a moderate share 
of capacity, though with very great practice; and they 
require art and instruction only so far, as they should be 



254: pE ORATORE j OR, [b. II. 

illustrated with certain embellishments of language. So also 
those which are of the other kind, and which proceed wholly 
from the orator, are not difficult of invention, but require 
perspicuous and correct exposition. As these two things, 
therefore, are the objects of our inquiry in causes, first, what 
we shall say, and next, how we shall say it ; the former, 
which seems to be wholly concerned with art, though it does 
indeed require some art, is yet an affair of but ordinary un- 
derstanding, namely, to see what ought to be said ; the latter 
is the department in which the divine power and excellence 
of the orator is seen; I mean in delivering what is to be 
said with elegance, copiousness, and variety of language. 

XXYIII. " The former part,^ then, since you have once 
declared it to be your pleasure, I will not refuse to finish off 
and complete, (how far I shall succeed you will best judge,) 
and shall show from what topics a speech must be furnished 

JLn order to effect these three objects which alone have power 
to persuade ; namely, that the minds of the audience be con- 
ciliated, informed^ and moved, for these are the three; but 

■ how they should be illustrated, there is one present who can 
instruct us all; one who first introduced this excellence into 
our practice, who principally improved it, who alone has 
brought it to perfection. For I think, Catulus, (and I will 
say this without any dread of a suspicion of flattery,) that 
there is no orator, at all more eminent than ordinary, either 
Grecian, or Roman, that our age has produced, whom I have 
not heard often and attentively ; and, therefore, if there is 
any ability in me, (as I may now presume to hope, since you, 
men of such talents, take so much trouble in giving me 
audience,) it arises from thm, that no orator ever delivered 
anything in my hearing, which did not sink deeply into my 
memory ; and I, such as I am, and as far as I have capacity 
to form a judgment, having heard all orators, without any 
hesitation decide and pronounce this. That none of them all 
had so many and such excellent accomplishments in speaking 
as are in Crassus. On which account, if you also are of the 
same opinion, it will not, as I think, be an unjust partition, 
if, when I shall have given birth and education and strength 
to this orator whom I am forming, as is my design, I deliver 

* Which shows what a speaker ought to say, and what is effective ia 
persuading an audience. Proust. 



C. XXVIII. J ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 

him to Crassus to be furnished with apparel and 
ments." 

Crassus then said, " Do you rather, Antonius, go on as ^ 
have commenced ; for it is not the part of a good or Hberall 
parent not to clothe and adorn him Avhom he has engendered^ 
and brought up ; especially as you cannot deny that you are 
wealthy enough. For what grace, what power, what spirit, 
what dignity was wanting to that orator, who at the close of 
a speech did not hesitate to call forth his accused chent, 
though of consular rank, and to tear open his garment, and to ^ 
expose to the judges the scars on the breast of the old com- 
mander'?^ who also, when he defended a seditious madman,^ 
Sulpicius here being the accuser, did not hesitate to speak in 
favour of sedition itself, and to demonstrate, with the utmost 
power of language, that many popular insurrections are just, for 
which nobody could be accountable? addingthat manyseditions 
had occurred to the benefit of the commonwealth, as when 
the kings were expelled, and when the power of the tribunes 
was established ; and that the sedition of Norbanus, proceed- 
ing from the grief of the citizens, and their hatred to Csepio, 
who had lost the army, could not possibly be restrained, and 
was blown up into a flame by a just indignation. Could this, 
so hazardous a topic, so unprecedented, so delicate, so new, 
be handled without an incredible force and power of elo- 
quence ■? What shall I say of the compassion excited for 
Cneius Manhus,^ or that in favour of Quintus Rex 1 * What 
of other innumerable instances, in which it was net* that ex- 
traordinary acuteness, w^iich everybody allows you, that was 
most conspicuous, but it was those very qualities which you 



^ Manius Aquilius, who, after the termination of the servile war in 
Sicily, was brought to trial on a charge of extortion. As he was -un- 
willing to entreat the pity of the judges, Antonius, who pleaded for 
him, tore open his tunic in front, and showed the scars of the honour- 
able wounds which he had received in battle. He was acquitted. Livy, 
Epit. Proust. 

2 Norbanus the tribune. See note on c. 47. Ellendt. 

^ He was consul with Publius Eutilius, a.u.c. 649 ; and having refused 
to unite his troops with those of Quintus Caepio, the proconsul, was de- 
feated by the Cimbri, and lost his army. Livy, Ep. Ixvii. For this 
miscarriage he was, with Caepio, brought to trial, and must have been 
defended by Antonius. Ellendt. 

* Of the trial of Quintus Marcius Eex nothing is known. EllericiU 



DE ORATORE ; OR, 

!ribe to me, that were always eiD 



II. 

Qt 



XXIX. " For my part," said Catulus is- 
:omed most to admire in you both, is, that v ly 

'unlike each other in your manner of s . -■ of 

you speaks so well, that nothing seems 3n 

denied you by nature, or not to have b*- •.. )u 

by learning. You, therefore, Crassus, from y ig 

disposition, will neither withhold from r-h thj^ \\ . . of 

"^ whatever may have been inadvertently ( ,•,.; it .(J 

by Antonius ; nor if you, Antonius, do riot ?peak • • :y 
point, we shall think, not that you could not speak o • it 

that you preferred that it should be i.reated * ,." 

Here Crassus said, " Do you rather, Antonius, se 

particulars which you have proposed to treat, ana whicii no. 
one here needs, namely, from what to ■'•'■'*« ih^ ^^^<1-,^^> ^nts 
made in pleadings are to be derived, .. .gii they 

would be treated by you in a new and excellent way, are in 
their nature very easy, and commonly set forth in books of 
rules; but show us those resources whence you draw that 
eloquence which you frequently exert, and always divinely." 
" I will indeed show you them," said Antonius ; " and that 
I may the more easily obtain from you what I require, I will 
refuse you nothing that you ask. The supports of my whole 
eloquence, and that power of speaking which Crassus just 
now extolled to the skies, are, as I observed before, three 
/ processes; the first, that of conciliating my hearers; the second, 

C^hat of iDstructing them ; and the third, that of moving them. 
The first of these divisions requires mildness of address ; the 
second penetration ; the third energy ; for it is impossible but 
that he, who is to determine a cause in our favour, must 
either lean to our side from propensity of feeling, or be swayed 
by the arguments of our defence, or be forced by action upon 
his mind. Bat shice that part, in which the opening of the 
case itself and the defence lie, seems to comprehend all that 
is laid down as doctrine on this head, I shall speak on that 
first, and say but few words ; for I seem to have but few 
observations gained from experience, and imprinted as it were 
on my memory. 

XXX. " We shall willingly consent to your judicious pro- 
posal, Crassus, to omit those defences for every sort of causes, 



C. XXX.] ox THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 257 

which the masters of rlietoric are accustomed to teach boys ; 
and to open those sources whence all arguments for every 
cause and speech are derived. For neither, as often as we 
have occasion to writj any word, need the letters of that 
word be so often collected in our thoughts ; nor, as often as. 
we are to plead a cause, need we turn to the separate argu- 
ments for that cause ; but we should have certain common- 
places which, like letters for forming a word, immediately 
occur to us to aid in stating a cause. But these common- 
places can be of advantage only to that orator who is conver- 
sant in business, and has that experience which age at length 
brings with it ; or one w^ho has so much attention and power 
of thought as to anticipate age by study and diligence. For 
if you bring to me a man of ever so deep erudition, of ever 
so acute and subtile an intellect, or ever so ready an elocu- 
tion, if he be a stranger to the customs of civil communities, 
to the examples, to the institutions, to the manners and 
inclinations of his fellow-citizens, the common-places from 
which arguments are drawn will be of little benefit to him. 
I must have a well-cultivated genius, like a field not once 
ploughed only, but again and again, with renewed and re- 
peated tillage, that it may produce better and larger crops ; 
and the cultivation here required is experience, attentive 
hearing of other orators, reading, and writing. 

" First, then, let him examine the nature of his cause, which 
is never obscure so far as the inquiry ^ whether a thing has 
been done or not ;' or ' of what nature it is ;' or ^ what name 
it should receive ;' and when this is ascertained, it imme- 
diately occurs, with the aid of natural good sense, and not of 
those artifices which teachers of rhetoric inculcate, ^what con- 
stitutes the cause,' that is, the point without which there 
would be no controversy; then, 'what is the matter for trial,* 
which they direct you to ascertain in this manner : Opimius 
slew Gracchus : what constitutes the cause ? ' That he slew 
him for the good of the republic, when he had called the 
people to arms, in consequence of a decree of the senate.' 
Set this point aside, and there will be no question for trial. 
But Decius denies that such a deed could be authorized 
contrary to the laws. The point therefore to be tried will 
be, 'whether Opimius had authority to do so from the decree 
of the senate, for the good of the commonwealth.' These 

s 



; ojE, 



258 DE ORATOBEj OJE, [b. II. 

matters are indeed clear, and may be settled by common 
sense j but it remains to be considered what arguments, re- 
lative to the point for trial, ought to be advanced, as well by 
the accuser as by him who has undertaken the defence. 

XXXI. " Here we must notice a capital error in those mas- 
ters to whom we send our children ; not that it has much to 
do with speaking, but that you may see how stupid and un- 
polished a set of men they are who imagine themselves learned. 
For, in distinguishing the different kinds of speaking, they 
make two species of causes. One they call, Hhat in which 
the question is about a general proposition, without reference 
to persons and times ;' the other, ' that which is confined to 
certain persons and times ;' being ignorant that all contro- 
versies must have relation to the force and nature of the 
general position ; for in that very cause which I mentioned, 
the person of Opimius or Decius has nothing to do with the 
common arguments of the orator ; since the inquiry has un- 
restricted reference to the question in general, ' whether he 
seems deserving of punishment who has slain a citizen under 
a decree of the senate for the preservation of his country, 
when such a deed was not permitted by the laws.' There is 
indeed no cause in which the point that falls under dispute 
is considered with reference to the parties to the suit, and not 
from arguments relating to. such questions in general. But 
even in those very cases where the dispute is about a fact, as 
' whether Publius Decius^ has taken money contrary to law, 
the arguments both for the accusation and for the defence 
must have reference to the general question, and the general 
nature of the case; as, to show that the defendant is expen- 
sive, the arguments must refer to luxury ; that he is covetous 
of another's property, to avarice ; that he is seditious, to 
turbulent and ill-designing citizens in general ; that he is 
convicted by many proofs, to the general nature of evidence : 
and, on the other side, whatever is said for the defendant, must 
of necessity be abstracted from the occasion and individual, 
and referred to the general notions of things and questions of 
the kind. These, perhaps, to a man who cannot readily compre- 
hend in his mind all that is in the nature of things, may seem 

^ He was accused of having been bribed to bring Opimius to triaj 
for having caused the death of Caius Gracchus. See Smith's Diet, of 
Eiog. and Mythol. Art. Decius, n 4. 



C. SXXII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 259 

extremely numerous to come under consideration when the 
question is about a single fact ; but it is the number of 
charges, and not of modes of defence, or topics for them, that 
is infinite.^ 

XXXII. "But when there is no contest about facts, the 
questions on the nature of facts, if you reckon them from 
the number of the partie"s accused, are innumerable and in- 
tricate j if from the facts themselves, very few and clear. 
For if we consider the case of Mancinus ^ so as referring to Man- 
cinus alone, then, whenever a person whom the chief herald 
has surrendered to the enemy is not re-admitted into his 
country, a new case will arise. But if what gives rise to the 
controversy be the general question, ^ whether to him whom 
the chief herald has surrendered, if he has not been re-admitted 
into his country, there seems to be a right of return,' the 
name of Mancinus has nothing to do with the mode of speak- 
ing upon it, or the arguments for the defence. And if the 
merit or demerit of the person give rise to any discussion, it 
is wholly beside, the question; and the part of the speech re- 
ferring to the question must, of necessity, be adapted to such 
arguments in general. I do not reason upon these subjects 
for the purpose of confuting learned teachers; although those 
merit reproof, who, in their general definition, describe this 
sort of causes as relating to persons and times. For, although 
times and persons are incident to them, yet it should be 
understood, that the causes depend not upon them, but ujpon 
the gep^ral question. But this is not my business ; for w^e 
ought to have no contest with that sort of people ; it is suffi- 
cient that this only should be known, that they have not 
even attained a point which they might have effected amid 
so much leisure, even without any experience in affairs of 
the forum ; that is, they might have distinguished the gene- 
ral natures of cases, and explained them a little more accu- 
rately. But this, as I' said, is not my business ; it is mine, 
and much more yours, my friends Cotta and Sulpicius, to 
know, that as their artificial rules now stand, the multitude 

^ Innumerable accusations may be brought against a person, as 
against Verres by Cicero ; but the loci, common topics or grounds, on 
which the attack or defence will rest, (respecting, for instance, avarice, 
luxury, violence, treason,) will be but few. Ellendt, 

2 See i. 40. 

S2 



?^^ DE oratore; or, [b. it. 

of causes is to be dreaded; for it is infinite, if they are 
referred to persons ; so many men, so many causes ; but, if 
they are referred to general questions, they are so limited and 
few, that studious orators of good memory and judgment 
ought to have them digested in their minds, and, I may almost 
say, learned by heart ; unless perhaps you imagine that Lucius 
Crassus took his notion of that famous cause ^ from Manius 
Curius personally; and thus brought many arguments to 
show why, though no posthumous son was born, yet Curius 
ought to be the heir of Coponius. The name of Coponius, or 
of Curius, had no influence at all on the array of arguments 
advanced, or on the force and nature of the question ; the 
whole controversy had regard to all affairs and events of that 
kind in general, not to particular occasions or names ; since 
the writing was thus. If a son is horn to me, and lie die 
before , etc., then let him he my heir ; and if a son was not 
born, the question was whether he ought to be heir who was 
appointed heir on the death of the son. 

XXXIII. '' A question regarding unvarying equity, and of 
a general nature, requires no names of persons, but merely 
skill in speaking, and sources of proper argument. In this 
respect even the lawyers themselves are an impediment to 
us, and hinder us from learning; for I perceive it to be gene- 
rally reported in the books of Cato and of Brutus, what 
answers they gave on points of law to any particular man or 
woman by name; that we might imagine, I suppose, some 
cause for consultation or doubt to have arisen from the per- 
sons, not from the thing; so that, since persons are innu- 
merable, we might be deterred from the study of the law, 
and lay aside all inclination to learn it, at the same time with 
all hope of ever attaining a thorough knowledge f)f it. 

" But Crassus will some day make all these points clear to 
us, and set them forth arranged under general heads ; for 
you must know, Catulus, that he promised us yesterday, 
that he would reduce the civil law, which is now in a state 
of confusion and dispersion, under certain general heads, and 
digest it into an easy system." " And indeed," said Catulus, 
'^ that is by no means a difficult undertaking for Crassus, 
who has all of law that can be learned, and he will supply 
tliat which was wanting in those who taught him; for he will 
^ See i. 39. 



C. XXXIV.] ox THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 261 

be able to define exactly, and to illustrate eloquently, every 
point comprehended in the law." '" We shall then," said 
Antonius, " learn all these things from Crassus, when he shall 
have betaken himself, as he intends, from the tumult of 
public business and the benches of the forum, to a quiet 
retreat, and to his thrrne."^ '* I have indeed often," observed 
Catulus, " heard hipi say, ' that he was resolved to retire 
from pleading and the courts of justice j' but, as I frequently 
tell him, it will never be in his power ; for neither will he 
permit his assistance to be repeatedly implored in vain by 
persons of character, nor will the public endure his retire- 
ment patiently, as they will think that if they lose the elo- 
quence of Lucius Crassus, they will lose one of the principal 
ornaments of the city." " Indeed then," remarked Antonius, 
" if what Catulus says is true, Crassus, you must still live on 
in the same workshop with me, and we must give up thai; 
yawning and sleepy science to the tranquillity of the Scsevolae 
and other such happy people." Here Crassus smiled a little, 
and said, *^ Finish weaving, Antonius, the web which . you 
have begun ; yet that yawning science, as you term it, when 
I have sheltered myself under it, will vindicate my right to 
liberty." 

XXXiy. " This is indeed the end," continued Antonius, 
*^of that part on which I just now entered; for it is now 
understood that all matters which a'dmit of doubt are to be 
decided, not with reference to individuals, who are innu- , 
merable, or to occasions, which are infinitely various, but to ' 
general considerations, and the nature of things ; that general 
considerationFare not only limited in number, but very few; 
that those who are studious of speaking should embrace in 
their minds -the subjects peculiar to the several departments 
of eloquence, arranged under general heads, as well as arrayed 
and adorned, I mean with thoughts and illustrations. These 
will, by their own force, beget words, w^hich always seem to 
me to be elegant enough, if they are such that the subject 
seems to have suggested them. And if you ask the truth, (as 
far, that is, as it is apparent to me, for I can affirm nothing 
more than my own notions and opinions,) we ought to carry this 
preparatory stock of general questions and common-places 
into the forum with us ; and not, when any cause is brought 
^ See i 45; also iii. 33; ii 55; and De Legg. i. 3. 



2(j2 DE ORATOEEj OE, [b. II. 

before us, begin then to seek for topics from which we may 
draw our arguments ; topics which, indeed, by all who have 
made, them the subject of but moderate consideration, may 
be thoroughly prepared by means of study and practice ; but 
the thoughts must still revert to those general heads and 
common-places to which I have so often alluded, and from 
which all arguments are drawn for every species of oratory. 
All that is required, whether it result from art, or observation, 
or practice, is but to know those parts of the field in which 
you may hunt for, and trace out, what you wish to find; for 
when you have embraced in your thoughts the whole of any 
topic, if you are but well practised in the treatment of sub- 
jects, nothing will escape you, and every circumstance mate- 
rial to the question will occur and suggest itself to you. 

XXXY. ^' Since, then, in speaking, three things are re- 
quisite for finding argument; genius, method, (which, if we 
please, we may call art,) and diligence, I cannot but assign 
the chief place to genius ; yet diligence can raise even genius 
itself out of dulness; diligence, I say, which, as it avails in 
all things, is also of the utmost moment in pleading causes. 
Diligence is to be particularly cultivated by us ; it is to be 
constantly exerted ; it is capable of effecting almost every- 
thing. That a cause is thoroughly understood, as I said at 
first, is owing to diligence; that we listen to our adversary 
attentively, and possess ourselves, not only of his thoughts, 
but even of his every word; that we observe all the motions 
of his countenance, which generally indicate the workings of 
the mind, is owing to diligence ; [but to do this covertly, that 
he may not seem to derive any advantage to himself, is the 
part of prudence ;] ^ that the mind ruminates on those topics 
which i shall soon mention, that it insinuates itself tho- 
roughly into the cause, that it fixes itself on it with care 
and attention, is owing to diligence; that it applies the 
memory like a light, to all these matters, as well as the tone 
of voice and power of delivery, is owing to diligence. Betwixt 
genius and diligence there is very little room left for art; 
art only shows you where to look, and where that lies 
which you want to find; all the rest depends on care, 
attention, consideration, vigilance, assiduity, industry; all 

' The words in brackets are regarded by all the best critics as the 
production of some interpolator. 



C. XXXVII.] ox THE CHARACTER OP THE ORATOR. 263 

which I include in that one word which I have so often 
repeated, diligence; a single virtue, in which all other 
virtues are comprehended. For we see how the philosophers 
abound in copiousness of language, who, as I think, (but you, 
Catulus, know these matters better,) lay down no precepts of 
eloquence, and yet do not, on that account, the less under- 
take to speak with fulness and fluency on whatever subject is 
proposed to them." 

XXXVI. Catulus then observed, "It is as you say, 
Antonius, that most philosophers deliver no precepts of 
eloquence, and yet are prepared with something to say on 
any subject. But Aristotle, he whom I admire more than any 
of them, has set forth certain topics from which every line of 
argument may be deduced, not only for the disputations of 
philosophy, but even for the reasoning which we use in 
pleading causes; from whose notions your discourse, Anto- 
nius, has for some time past not varied; whether you, froni 
a resemblance to that divine genius, hit upon his ti-ack, or 
whether you have read and made yourself master of his 
w^ritings; a supposition indeed w^hich seems to be more pro- 
bable than the other, for I see that you have paid more atten- 
tion to the Greek writers than we had imagined." " You shall 
hear from myself," said he, ^'Catulus, what is really the case : 
I always thought that an orator would be more agreeable to 
the Roman people, and better approved, w^ho should give, 
above all, as little indication as possible of artifice, and none 
at all of having studied Grecian literature. At the same 
time, when the Greeks undertook, professed, and executed 
such great things, when they offered to teach mankind how- 
to penetrate the most obscure subjects, to live virtuously and 
to speak eloquently, I thought it the part of an irrational 
animal rather than a man, not to pay them some degree of 
attention, and, if we cannot venture to hear them openly, 
for fear of diminishing our authority with our own fellow- 
citizens, to catch their words at least by listening privately, 
and hearkening at a distance to w^hat they stated ; and thus 
I have acted, Catulus, and have gained a general notion of 
the arguments and subjects of aU their writers." 

XXXYII. '-'Really and truly," said Catulus, "you have 
steered your bark to the coasts of philosophy with the utmost 
caution, as if you had been approaching some rock of un- 



264 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b.II. 

lawful desire/ though this country has never despised philo- 
sophy. For Italy was formerly full of Pythagoreans, at the 
time when part of this country was called Great Greece:^ 
(whence some report that Numa Pompilius, one of our kings, 
was a Pythagorean; though he lived many years before the 
time of Pythagoras ; for which reason he is to be accounted 
the greater man, as he had the wisdom and knowledge to 
regulate our state, almost two centuries before the Greeks 
knew that it had arisen in the w^orld;) and certainly this 
country never produced men more renowned for glorious 
actions, or of greater gravity and authority, or possessed of 
more polite learning than Publius Africanus, Caius Leelius, 
and Lucius Furius, who always had about them publicly the 
most learned men from Greece. I have often heard them 
say, that the Athenians had done what was very pleasing to 
them, and to many of the leading men in the city, in sending, 
w^hen they despatched ambassadors to the senate about im- 
portant concerns of their own, the three most illustrious 
philosophers of that age, Carneades, Critolaus, and Diogenes; 
who, during their stay at Rome, were frequently heard lec- 
turing by them and others. And when you had such authori- 
ties as these, Antonius, I wonder why you should, like Zethus 
in Pacuvius's play,^ almost declare war against philosophy." 
" I have not by any means done so," replied Antonius, '' for 
I have determined rather to philosophize, like Ennius's 
Neoptolemus, a little, since to he absolutely a philosopher is 
not agreeable to me. But my opinion, which I think I have 
clearly laid down, is this: I do not disapprove of such 
studies, if they be but moderately pursued ; but I think that 

^ That the allusion is to the islands of the Sirens, who tried to allure 
Ulysses to listen to their song, the commentators have already observed. 
Elleyidt. 

2 Quum erat in hac genite Magna ilia Grcecia, "when Great Greece 
was in (or among) this people." In hac gente, 1. e. in Italis, among the 
Italians, or in Italy. Ellendt. 

^ In one of the tragedies of Pacuvius were represented two brothers, 
Amphion and Zethus, the former fond of philosophy, music, and the 
refined arts, the other of a rougher disposition, addicted to war and 
despising science. To this story Horace also alludes, Ep. i. 18. 41 : 
Gratia sic fratrum geminorum Amphionis atque 
Zethi, dissiluit, donee suspecta severo 
Conticuit lyra. Fraternis cessisse putatur 
Moribus Amphion. i>. 



C. XXXVIII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 265 

the reputation of that kind of learning, and all suspicion of 
artifice, is prejudicial to the orator with those who have the 
decision of affairs; for it diminishes the authority of the 
speaker and the credit of his speech." 

XXXYIII. " But that our conversation may return to 
the point from which it digressed, do you observe that of 
those three illustrious philosophers, who, as you said, came 
to Rome, one was Diogenes, wdio professed to teach the art of 
reasoning w^ell, and distinguishing truth from falsehood, w^hich 
he called by the Greek name SiaXeKTiKyj, or logic'? In this 
art, if it be an art, there are no directions how truth may be 
discovered, but only how it may be judged. For everything 
of which we speak we either affirm to be or not to be ; ^ and 
if it be expressed absolutely, the logicians take it in hand to 
judge whether it be true or false ; or, if it be expressed con- 
ditionally, and qualifications are added, they determine whe- 
ther such qualifications are rightly added, and whether the 
conclusion of each syllogism is true ; and at last they torment 
themselves wdth their own subtilties, and, after much dis- 
quisition, find out not only what they themselves cannot resolve, 
but even arguments, by which what they had before begun 
to resolve, or rather had almost made clear, is again involved 
in obscurity. Here, then, that Stoic ^ can be of no assistance 
to me, because he does not teach me how to find out what to 
say ; he is rather even an impediment to me ; for he finds 
many difficulties which he says can by no means be cleared, 
and unites with them a kind of language that .is not clear, 
easy, and fluent; but poor, dry, succinct, and concise; and 
if any one shall approve such a style, he will approve it w^ith 
the acknowledgment that it is not suited to the orator. For 
our mode of speaking is to be adapted to the ear of the mul- 
titude, to fascinate and excite their minds, and to prove- 
matters that are not weighed in the scales of the goldsmith, 
but in the balance, as it were, of popular opinion; we may 
therefore entirely dismiss an art which is too silent about the 
invention of arguments, and too full of words in pronouncing 
judgment on them. That Critolaus^ whom you mention as 

^ In this passage I adopt the correction, or rather restoration, ol 
Ellendt, Nam et omne, quod eloquimur, fit, tU id aut esse dicamus aut 
non esse. All other modern editions for fit have sic, 

2 Diogenes, and other Stoics like him. Proust, 



266 DE ORATOREj OR, [b. II. 

having come hitlier with Diogenes, might, I fancy, have been 
of more assistance to our studies, for he was out of the 
school of that Aristotle from whose method I seem to you 
not greatly to differ. Between this Aristotle, (of whom I 
have read, as well that book in which he explains the rhe- 
torical systems of all who went before him, as those in 
which he gives us some notions of his own on the art,) 
between him, I say, and the professed teachers of the art, 
there appeared to me to be this difference : that he with the 
same acuteness of intellect with which he had penetrated 
the qualities and nature of things throughout the universe, 
saw into everything that pertained to the art of rhetoric, 
which he thought beneath him ; but they, who thought this 
. art alone worthy of cultivation, passed their whole lives in con- 
templating this one subject, not with as much ability as he, 
but with constant practice in their single pursuit, and greater 
devotion to it. As to Carneades, that extraordinary force 
and variety of eloquence which he possessed would be ex- 
tremely desirable for us; a man who never took up any 
argument in his disputations which he did not prove ; never 
attacked any argument that he did not overthrow. But this 
is too arduous an accomplishment to be expected from those 
who profess and teach rhetoric. 

XXXIX. "If it were my desire that a person totally 
illiterate should be instructed in the art of speaking, I would 
willingly send him to these perpetual workers at the same 
employment, who hammer day and night on the same anvil, 
and who would put his literary food into his mouth, in the 
smallest pieces, minced as fine as possible, as nurses put theirs 
into the mouths of children. But if he were one who had 
had a liberal education, and some degree of practice, and 
seemed to have some acuteness of genius, I would instantly 
conduct him, not where a little brook of water was confined 
by itself, but to the source whence a whole flood gushed 
forth ; to an instructor who would show him the seats and 
abodes, as it were, of every sort of arguments, and would 
Ulustrate them briefly, and define them in proper terms. 
For what point is there in which he can hesitate, who shall 
see that whatever is assumed in speaking, either to prove or 
to refute, is either derived from the peculiar force and 
nature of the subject itself, or borrowed from something 



C. XL.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 267 

foreign to it ? From its own peculiar force : as when it is 
inquired, * what the nature of a whole thing is/ or ^ a part of 
it/ or ' what name it has/ or whatever belongs to the whole 
matter. From what is foreign to it : as when circumstances 
which are extrinsic, and not inherent in the nature of 
the thing, are enumerated in combination. If the inquiry 
regard the whole, its whole force is to be explained by a defi- 
nition, thus: *If the majesty of a state be its greatness and 
dignity, he is a traitor to its majesty who delivers up an 
army to the enemies of the Eoman people, not he who 
delivers up him who has violated it into the power of the 
Eoman people.' But if the question respect only a part, 
the matter must be managed by partition in this manner: 
^ Either the senate should have been obeyed concerning the 
safety of the republic, or some other authority should have 
been constituted, or he should have acted on his own judg- 
ment: to constitute another authority had been haughty; 
to act on his own judgment had been arrogant; he had 
therefore to obey the direction of the senate.' If we argue 
from a name, we may express ourselves like Carbo : ^ If he be 
a consul who consults the good of his country, what else has 
Opimius done?' But if we argue from what is intimately 
connected with the subject, there are many sources of argu- 
ments and common-places; for we shall look to adjuncts, to 
general views, to particulars falling under general views, to 
things similar and dissimilar, contraiy, consequential ; to such 
as agree with the case, and are, as it were, forerunners of it, and , 
such as are at variance with it ; we shall investigate the causes 
of circumstances, and whatever has arisen from those causes ; ^ 
and shall notice cases that are stronger, or similar, or weaker. 
XL. " From things closely relating to the subject argu- 
ments are drawn thus : ' If the utmost praise is to be attri- 
buted to filial duty, you ought to be moved when you see 
Quintus Metellus mourn so tenderly.' From general consider- 
ations, thus : ' If magistrates ought to be under the power of 
the Roman people, of what do you accuse Norbanus, whose 
tribunesliip was subservient to the will of the state V From 
particulars that fall under the general consideration, thus: 
* If all who consult the interest of the public ought to be 
dear to us, certainly military commanders should be pecu- 
liarly dear, by whose conduct, courage, and exposure to 



268 DE OKATORE j OR, [b. II. 

danger, we preserve our own safety and the dignity of the 
empire.' From similarity, thus : ' If wild beasts love their 
offspring, what affection ought we to feel for our children ? ' 
From dissimilarity, thus : ^ If it be the character of barbarians 
to live as it were for a short season, our plans ought to have 
respect to perpetuity.' In both modes of comparison, from 
similarity as well as dissimilarity, examples are taken from 
the acts, sayings, and successes of others; and fictitious nar- 
ratives may often be introduced. From contraries, argu- 
ments are drawn thus : ^ If Gracchus acted in a detestable, 
Opimius has acted in a glorious, manner.' From subsequent 
circumstances, thus : ' If he be slain with a weapon, and you, 
his enemy, are found on the very spot with a bloody sword, 
and nobody but you is seen there, and no one else had any 
reason to commit the act, and you were always of a daring 
character, what ground is there on which we can possibly 
doubt of your guilt?' From concurrent, antecedent, and 
repugnant circumstances, thus, as Crassus argued when he 
was quite a young man : * Although, Carbo, you defended 
Opimius, this audience will not on that account esteem you 
a good citizen ; for it is clear that you dissembled and had 
other views, because you often, in your harangues, deplored 
the fate of Tiberius Gracchus, because you were an accom- 
plice in the death of Publius Africanus, because you proposed 
a law of such a nature in your tribuneship, because you have 
always dissented from good members of the state.' From the 
causes of things, thus : ^ If you would abolish avarice, yoin 
must abolish the parent of it, luxury.' From whatever arises} 
from those causes, thus : ^ If we use the money in the treasury 
as well for the services of war as the ornaments of peace, let 
us take care of the public revenues.' Stronger, weaker, and 
parallel instances, we shall compare thus: from a stronger 
we shall argue in this way, ^ If a good name be preferable to\^ 
riches, and money is pursued with so much industry, with / 
how much more exertion is glory to be sought 1 ' From a / 
weaker, thus : 

" Since merely for a small acquaintance' sake 
He takes this woman's death so nearly, what 
If he himself had loved ? what would he feel 
For me, his father ? ^ 



* Terence, Andr. i. 1. 83. Colman's Translation. 



C. XLI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 269 

'' From a parallel case, thus : ' It is natural to the same 
character, to be rapacious of the public money, and to be 
profuse of it to the public prejudice.' But instances borrowed 
from extraneous circumstances are such as are not supported 
by their own strength, but somewhat foreign : as, 'This is true : 
for Quintus Lutatius has affirmed it:' ' This is false; for an 
examination has been made :' ' This must of necessity follow; 
for I shall read the writings ;' on which head I spoke fully a 
little while ago." XLI. I have been as brief in the exempli- 
fication of these matters as their nature would permit. For 
as, if I wished to make known to any one a quantity of gold, 
that was buried in separate heaps, it ought to be sufficient if 
I told him the signs and marks of the places, with the know- 
ledge of which he might dig for himself, and find what he 
wished with very little trouble, and without any mistake; so 
I wished to specify such marks, as it were, of arguments, as 
would let him who seeks them know where they are:^ what 
remains is to be brought out by industry and thought. 
What kind of arguments is most suitable to any particular 
kind of cause it requires no exquisite skill to prescribe, but 
merely moderate capacity to determine. For it is not now 
my design to set forth any system of rhetoric, but to com- 
municate to men of eminent learning some hints drawn from 
my own experience. These common-places, therefore, being 
fixed in the mind and memory, and called forth on every 
subject proposed to be discussed, there will be nothing that 
can escape the orator, not merely in matters litigated in the 
forum, but in any department of eloquence whatever. But if 
he shall attain such success, as to seem to be what he would 
wish to seem, and to affect the minds of those before whom 
he pleads in such a manner as to lead or rather force them 
in whatever direction he pleases, he will assuredly require 
nothing else to render him accomplished in oratory. 

^' We now see. that it is by no means sufficient to find out 
what to say, unless we can handle it skilfully when we have 
found it. This treatment ought to be diversified, that he who 

^ I follow Ellendt's text : Sic has ego argument or um volui notas quce- 
renti denionstrare vM sint. Orellius and most other editors have Sic 
has ego argumeiitorum novi notas, quce ilia mihi qucerenti demonstrant, 
" sententia perinepta," as Ellendt observes ; for it was not what An- 
tonius himself knew that was to be specified, but how he wished 
learners to be assisted. 



270 DE oratorb; or, [b. ii. 

listens may neither discover any artifice, nor be tired and 
satiated with uniformity. Whatever you advance, should be 
laid down as a proposition, and you should show why it is so ; 
and, from the same premises, you should sometimes form a 
conclusion, and sometimes leave it to be formed by the hearer, 
and make a transition to something else. Frequently, how- 
ever, you need make no proposition, but show, by the reason- 
ing which you shall use, what proposition might have been 
made. If you produce a comparison to anything, you should 
first confirm what you offer as a comparison ; and then apply 
to it the point in question. In general, you should shade 
the distinctive points of your arguments, so that none of 
your hearers may count them ; and that, while they appear 
clear as to matter, they may seem blended in your mode of 
speaking on them. 

XLII. " I run over these matters cursorily, as addressing 
men of learning, and, being myself but half-learned, that we 
may at length arrive at matters of greater consequence. For 
there is nothing, Catulus, of more importance in speaking 
than that the hearer should be favourable to the speaker, and 
be himself so strongly moved that he may be influenced 
more by impulse and excitement of mind, than by judgment 
. or reflection. For mankind make far more determinations 
through hatred, or love, or desire, or anger, or grief, or joy, or 
hope, or fear, or error, or some other affection of mind, than 
from regard to truth, or any settled maxim, or principle of 
right, or judicial form, or adherence to the laws. Unless 
anything else, therefore, be agreeable to you, let us proceed 
to consider these points." 

^^ There seems," observed Catulus, " to be still some little 
wanting to those matters which you have discussed, Antonius, 
something that requires to be explained before you pro- 
ceed to what you propose." " What is it ?" asked Antonius. 
" What order," replied Catulus, " and arrangement of argu- 
ments, has your approbation; for in that department you 
always seem a god to me." " You may see how much of 
a god I am in that respect, Catulus," rejoined Antonius; "for 
I assure you the matter would never have come into my 
thoughts if I had not been reminded of it; so that you may 
suppose I am generally led by mere practice in speaking, or 
rather perhaps by chance, to fix on that arrangement of 



c. xliil] ox the character of the orator. 271 

matter by which I seem at times to produce some effect. 
However, that very point which I, because I had no thought 
of it, passed by as I should by a person unknown to me, is of 
such efi&cacy in oratory, that nothing is more conducive to 
victory ; but yet you seem to me to have required from me 
prematurely an account of the order and disposition of the 
orator's material ; for if I had placed all his power in argu- 
mentation, and in proving his case from its own inherent 
merits, it might be time to say something on the order and 
arrangement of his arguments ; but as three heads were 
specified by me, and I have spoken on only one, it will be 
proper, after I have attended to the other two, to consider, 
last of all, about the general arrangement of a speech. 

XLIII. '^ It contributes much to success in speaking, that 
the morals, principles, conduct, and lives of those who plead 
causes, and of those for whom they plead, should be such as 
to merit esteem ; and that those of their adversaries should be 
such as to deserve censure \ and also that the minds of those 
before whom the cause is pleaded should be moved as much as 
possible to a favourable feeling, as well towards the speaker as 
towards him for whom he speaks. The feelings of the hearers 
are conciliated by a person's dignity, by his actions, by the 
character of his life; particulars which can more easily be 
adorned by eloquence, if they really exist, than be invented, 
if they have no existence. But the qualities that attract 
favour to the orator are a soft tone of voice, a countenance 
expressive of modesty, a mild manner of speaking; so that if 
he attacks any one with severity, he may seem to do so 
unwillingly and from compulsion. It is of peculiar advantage 
that indications of good nature, of liberality, of gentleness, of 
piety, of grateful feelings, free from selfishness and avarice, 
should appear in him ; and everything that characterizes men 
of probity and humility, not acrimonious, nor pertinacious, 
nor litigious, nor harsh, very much conciliates benevolence, 
and alienates the affections from those in whom such qualities 
are not apparent. The contrary qualities to these, therefore, 
are to be imputed to your opponents. This mode of address 
is extremely excellent in those causes in which the mind of 
the judge cannot well be inflamed by ardent and vehement 
incitation; for energetic oratory is not always desirable, but 
often smooth, submissive, gentle language, which gains much 



272 r 

^ DE ORATOKE j OB, [b. II. 

.avour for rei, or defendants, a term by which I designate 
not only such as are accused, but all persons about whose 
affairs there is any litigation ; for in that sense people formerly 
used the word. To describe the character of your clients in 
your speeches, therefore, as just, full of integrity, religious, 
unpresuming, and patient of injuries, has an extraordinary 
eflFect ; and such a description, either in the commencement, or 
in your statement of facts, or in the peroration, has so much 
influence, if it is agreeably and judiciously managed, that it 
often prevails more than the merits of the cause. Such 
influence, indeed, is produced by a certain feeling and art in 
speaking, that the speech seems to represent, as it were, the 
character of the speaker ; for, by adopting a peculiar mode of 
thought and expression, united with action that is gentle and 
indicative of amiableness, such an effect is produced, that the 
speaker seems to be a man of probity, integrity, and virtue. 

XLiy. ^^ To this mode of speaking we may subjoin the 
opposite method, which moves the minds of the judges by 
very different means, and impels them to hate, or love, or 
envy, or benevolence, or fear, or hope, or desire, or abhor- 
rence, or joy, or grief, or pity, or severity; or leads them to 
whatever feelings resemble and are allied to these and 
similar emotions of mind. It is desirable, too, for the orator, 
that the judges may voluntarily bring to the hearing of the 
cause some feelings in their breasts favourable to the object 
of the speaker. For it is easier, as they say, to increase the 
speed of him that is already running, than to excite to motion 
him that is torpid. But if such shall not be the case, or be 
somewhat doubtful, then, as a careful physician, before he 
proceeds to administer any, medicine to a patient, must not 
only understand the disease of him whom he would cure, 
but also his habit and constitution of body when in health ; so 
I, for my part, when I undertake a cause of such doubt and 
importance as is likely to excite the feelings of the judges, 
employ all my sagacity on the care and consideration of 
ascertaining, as skilfully as I can, what their sentiments and 
opinions are, what they expect, to which side they incline, 
and to what conclusion they are likely to be led, with the 
least difiiculty, by the force of oratory. If they yield them- 
selves up, and, as I said before, voluntarily incline and pre- 
ponderate to the side to which I would impel them, I embrace 



C. XLV.] ON THE CHARACTER OP THE ORATOR. 273 

what is offered, and turn my sails to that quarter from 
whence any breath of wind is perceived to blow. But if the 
judge is unbiassed, and free from all passion, it is a work of 
greater difficulty ; for every feeling must then be moved by the 
power of oratory, without any assistance from nature. But 
so great are the powers of that which was rightly termed by 
a good poet/ 

Incliner of the soul, and queen of all things, 
• 
Eloquence, that it can not only make him upright who is 
biassed, or bias him who is steadfast, but can, like an able 
and resolute commander, lead even him captive who resist? 
and opposes. 

XLY. " These are the points about which Crassus just 
now jocosely questioned me when he said that I treated them 
divinely, and praised what I did, as being meritoriously done, 
in the causes of Manius Aquilius,^ Caius ISTorbanus,^ and some 
others ; but really, Crassus, when such arts are adopted by you 
in pleading, I use to feel terrified ; such power of mind, such 
impetuosity, such passion, is expressed in your eyes, your 
countenance, your gesture, and even in your very finger f 
such a torrent is there of the most emphatic and best chosen 
words, such noble thoughts, so just, so new, so free from all 
disgTiise or puerile embellishment, that you seem not only 
to me to fire the judge, but to be yourself on fire. Nor is it 
possible that the judge should feel concern, or hate, or envy, 
or fear in any degree, or that he should be moved to com- 
passion and tears, unless all those sensations which the 
orator would awaken in the judge shall appear to be deeply 
felt and experienced by the orator himself. For if a coun- 
terfeit passion were to be assumed, and if there were nothing, 
in a speech of that kind, but what was false and simulated, 
still greater art would perhaps be necessary. What is the 
case with you, however, Crassus, or with others, I do not 
know; as to myself, there is no reason why I should say 
what is false to men of your great good sense and friendship 

^ Pacuvius in his Hermione, as appears from Nonius y. flexanima. 
The thought is borrowed from Euripides, Hec. 816. Ellendt. 

^ See note on c. 28. " See note on c. 47. 

* The forefinger, which Crassus is said to have pointed with won- 
derful effect. See Quintilian, xi. 3. 94. 

T 



274 DE OEATORE ; OR, [b. IL 

for me, — I never yet, upon my honour, tried to excite sorrow, 
or compassion, or envy, or hatred, when speaking before a 
court of judicature, but I myself, in rousing the judges, was 
affected with the very same sensations that I wished to 
produce in them. For it is not easy to cause the judge to be 
angry with him with whom you desire him to be angry, if 
you yourself appear to take the matter coolly ; or to make 
him hate him whom you wish him to hate, unless he first 
see you burning with hatred; nor will he be moved to pity, 
unless you give him plain indications of your own acute 
feelings, by your expressions, sentiments, tone of voice, look, 
and finally by sympathetic tears ; for as no fuel is so com- 
bustible as to kindle without the application of fire, so no 
disposition of mind is so susceptible of the impressions of the 
orator as to be animated to strong feeling, unless he himself 
approach it full of inflammation and ardour. 

XLVI. " And that it may not appear to you extraordinary 
and astonishing, that a man should so often be angry, so 
often grieve, and be so often excited by every passion of the 
mind, especially in other men's concerns, there is such force, 
let me assure you, in those thoughts and sentiments which 
you apply, handle, and discuss in speaking, that there is no 
occasion for simulation or deceit ; for the very nature of the 
language which is adopted to move the passions of others, 
moves the orator himself in a greater degree than any one of 
those who listen to him. That we may not be surprised, too, 
that this happens in causes, in criminal trials, in the danger 
of our friends, and before a multitude in the city and in 
the forum, where not only our reputation for ability is 
at stake, (for that might be a slight consideration ; al- 
though, when you have professed to accomplish what few 
can do, it is not wholly to be neglected;) but where other 
things of greater importance are concerned, fidelity, dutj. 
to our clients, and earnestness in discharging that duty ; we J 
are so much moved by such considerations, that even while^ 
we defend the merest strangers, we cannot regard them as 
strangers, if we wish to be thought honest men ourselves. 
But, as I said, that this may not appear surprising in us, 
what can be more fictitious than poetry, than theatrical 
representations, than the argument of a play ? Yet on the 
stage I myself have often observed the eyes of the actor 



C. XLVII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 275 

through his mask appear inflamed with fury, while he was 
repeating these verses/ 

Have you, then, dared to separate him from you, 
Or enter Salamis without your brother ? 
And dreaded not your father's countenance ? 

He never uttered the word 'countenance' but Telamon seemed 
to me to be distracted with rage and grief for his son. And 
how, lowering his voice to a tone of sorrow, did he appear to 
weep and bewail, as he exclaimed, 

Whom childless now in the decline of life 
You have afflicted, and bereaved, and killed ; 
Regardless of your brother's death, regardless 
Of his young son entrusted to your keeping ! 

And if even the player who pronounced these verses every 
day, could not yet pronounce them efficiently without a feel- 
ing of real grief, can you suppose that Pacuvius, when he 
wrote them, was in a cool and tranquil state of mind? Such 
could not be the case ; for I have often heard that no man 
can be a good poet (as they say is left recorded in the writings 
of both Democritus and Plato) without ardour of imagina- 
tion, and the excitement of something similar to frenzy. 

XLYII. '- Do not therefore imagine . that I, who had no 
desire to imitate or represent the calamities or fictitious sor- 
rows of the heroes of antiquity in my speech, and was no 
actor of a foreign and personated part, but a supporter of my 
own, when Manius Aquilius, by my efforts, was to be main- 
tained in his rights as a citizen, did that which I did in the 
peroration of that cause, without a strong feeling. For when 
I saw him whom I remembered to have been consul, and, as 
a general honoured by the senate, to have marched up to the 
Capitol with the pomp of an ovation, af^icted, dejected, sor- 
rowful, reduced to the last extremity of danger, I no sooner 
attempted to excite compassion in others, than I was myself 
moved with compassion. I observed, indeed, that the judges 
were wonderfully moved, when I brought forward the sor- 
rowful old man habited in mourning, and did what you, 

^ Spondalia. For this word I have given " verses." " That it is 
corrupt," says Ellendt, " all the commentators agree." Hermann, Opusc. 
i. p. 304, conjectures e spondd ilia, ^' from that couch," on which he 
supposes Telamon may have been reclining. 

t2 



276 DE ORATOREj OR, [b.II. 

Crassus, commend, not with art (of which I know not what 
to say), but with great concern and emotion of mind, so that 
I tore open his garment and showed his scars; when Cains 
Marius, who was present and sat by, heightened the sorrow 
expressed in my speech by his tears ; and when I, frequently 
calhng upon him, recommended his colleague to his pro- 
tection, and invoked him as an advocate to defend the 
common fortune of commanders. This excitement of com- 
passion, this adjuration of all gods and men, of citizens and 
allies, was not unaccompanied by my tears and extreme com- 
miseration on my part; and if, from all the expressions 
which I then used, real concern of my own had been 
absent, my speech would not only have failed to excite com- 
miseration, but would have even deserved ridicule. I, there- 
fore, instruct you in these particulars, Sulpicius, I that 
am, forsooth, so skilful and so learned a master, showing you 
how, in speaking, you may be angry, and sorrowful, and 
weep. 

'' Though why, indeed, should I teach you this, who, in 
accusing my quaestor and companion in office,^ raised so fierce 
a flame, not only by your speech, but much more by your 
vehemence, passion, and fiery spirit, that I could scarce ven- 
ture to approach to extinguish it? For you had in that 
cause everything in your favour; you brought before the 
judges violence, flight, pelting with stones, the cruel exercise 
of the tribunitian power in the grievous and miserable 
calamity of Ceepio; it also appeared that Marcus iEmilius, 
the first man, not only in the senate, but in the city, had 
been struck with one of the stones ; and nobody could deny 
that Lucius Cotta and Titiis Didius, when they would have 

^ Quintus Servilius Csepio, in iiis consulship, says Henrichsen, had 
embezzled a large portion of the gold taken at the capture of Toulouse, 
A.u.c. 648. In the following year, when, through the disagreement be- 
t^veen him and the consul Manlius, the Komans were defeated in two 
battles by the Cimbri, his property was confiscated, and his command 
taken from him. Some years afterwards, a.u.c. 659, when Crassus and 
Sceevola were consuls, Caius ISTorbanus, then tribune of the people, 
brought Csepio to trial, as it appears, for the embezzlement of the gold 
at Toulouse, and for exciting sedition in the city. The senate, to whom 
Caepio, in his consulship, had tried to restore the judicial power, exerted 
themselves strongly in his behalf; but Norbanus, after exciting a great 
tumult, carried hirs point by force, and Csepio went into banishment a^ 
Smyrna. 



C. XL VIII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR, 277 

interposed their negative upon the passing of the law, had 
been driven in a tumultuous manner from the temple. 

XLYIII. There was also this circumstance in jour favour, 
that you, being merely a youth, were thought to make these 
complaints on behalf of the commonwealth with the utmost 
propriety ; I, a man of censorian rank, was thought hardly in 
a condition to appear with any honour in defence of a sedi- 
tious citizen, a man who had been unrelenting at the calamity 
of a consular person. The judges were citizens of the highest 
character; the forum was crowded with respectable people^ 
so that scarcely even a slight excuse was allowed me, although 
I was to speak in defence of one who had been my quaestor. 
In these circumstances why need I say that I had recourse 
to some degree of art? I will state how I acted, and, if you 
please, you may place my defence under some head of art. 
I noticed, in connexion, the natures, ill effects, and dangers 
of every kind of sedition. I brought down my discourse on 
that subject through all the changes of circumstances in our 
commonwealth; and I concluded by observing, that though, 
all seditions had ever been attended with troubles, yet that^ 
some had been supported by justice, and almost by necessity. 
I then dwelt on those topics which Crassus just now men- 
tioned, that neither could kings have been expelled from this 
city, nor tribunes of the people have been created, nor the 
consular power have been so ofteu diminished by votes of 
the commonalty, nor the right of appeal, that patroness of 
the state and guardian of our liberty, have been granted to the 
Roman people, without disagreement with the nobility ; and 
if those seditions had been of advantage to the republic, it 
should not immediately, if any commotion had been raised 
among the people, be laid to the charge of Caius Norbanus 
as a heinous crime or capital misdemeanour ; but that, if it had 
ever been allowed to the people of Rome to appear justly 
provoked (and I showed that it had been often allowed), no 
occasion was ever more just than that of which I was speaking. 
I then gave another turn to my speech, and directed it to 
the condemnation of Caepio's flight, and lamentation for the 
loss of the army. By this diversion I made the grief of those to 
flow afresh who were mourning for their friends, and re-excited 
the minds of the Roman knights before whom, as judges, 
the cause was being pleaded, to hatred towards Quintus 



278 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. IL 

Csepio, from whom they were alienated on account of the 
right of judicature.^ 

XLIX, " But as soon as I perceived that I was in posses- 
sion of the favour of the court, and that I had secured 
ground for defence, because I had both concihated the good 
feeling of the people, whose rights I had maintained even in 
conjunction with sedition, and had brought over the whole 
feeling of the judges to our side of the question, either from 
their concern for the calamity of the public, or from grief or 
regret for their relations, or from their own individual aver- 
sion to Caepio, I then began to intermix with this vehement 
and ardent style of oratory that other species of which I 
discoursed before, full of lenity and mildness; saying that 
I was contending for my companion in ofi&ce, who, according 
to the custom of our ancestors, ought to stand in relation to 
me as one of my children, and for almost my whole reputa- 
tion and fortunes ; that nothing could possibly happen more 
dishonourable to my character, or more bitterly adapted to 
give pain to me, than if I, who was reputed to have been 
oftentimes the preservation of those who were entire 
strangers to me, but yet my fellow-citizens, should not be 
able to assist an officer of my own. 1 requested of the 
judges to make this concession to my age, to the honours 
which I had attained, to the actions which I had performed, 
if they saw that I was affected with a just and tender sorrow, 
and especially if they were sensible that in other causes I 
had asked everything for my friends in peril, but never any- 
thing for myself. Thus, in the whole ot that defence and 
cause, the part which seemed to depend on art, the speaking 
on the Apuleian law, and explaining what ifc^was to commit 
treason, I skimmed and touched upon as briefly as possible. 
But by the aid of these two parts of eloquence, to one of 
which belongs the excitement of the passions, to the other 
recommendation to favour, (parts not at all fully treated in 
the rules in books on the art,) was the whole of that cause 
conducted by me ; so that, in reviving the popular displea- 
sure against Ceepio, I appeared to be a person of the keenest 
acrimony; and, in speaking of my behaviour towards my 
friends, to be of the most humane disposition. In this 

* As Csepio had tried to take it out of the hands of the knights, and 
to restore it to the senate. 



C. LI.] ON THE CHARACTER OP THE ORA.TOR. 279 

manner, rather by exciting the passions of the judges than 
by informing their understandings, was your accusation, 
Sulpicius, at that time overthrown by me." 

L. ^' In good truth, Antonius," interposed Sulpicius, " you 
recall these circumstances to my memory with justice; since 
I never saw anything slip out of any person's hands, as that 
cause then slipped out of mine. For whereas, as you ob- 
served, I had given you not a cause to plead, but a flame to 
extinguish ; what a commencement was it (immortal gods !) 
that you made ! What timidity was there ! What distrust ! 
What a degree of hesitation and slowness of speech 1 But as 
soon as you had gained that by your exordium, which was 
the only thing that the assembly allowed you as an excuse, 
namely, that you were pleading for a man intimately con- 
nected with you, and your own quaestor, how quickly did you 
secure your way to a fair audience ! But lo ! when I thought 
that you had reaped no other benefit than that the hearers 
would think they ought to excuse you for defending a 
pernicious citizen, on account of the ties of union betwixt 
you, you began to proceed gradually and tacitly, while others 
had as yet no suspicion of your designs, though I myself felt 
some apprehension, to maintain in your defence that what 
had happened was not sedition in Norbanus, but resentment 
on the part of the Roman people, resentment not excited 
unjustly, but deservedly, and in conformity with their duty. 
In the next place, what argument did you omit against 
Cgepio? How did you confound all the circumstances of 
the case by allusions to hatred, ill-will, and compassion ? 
Nor was this the case only in your defence, but even in 
regard to Scaur us and my other witnesses, whose evidence 
you did not confute by disproving it, but by having recourse 
to the same impetuosity of the people. When those circum- 
stances were mentioned by you just now, I felt no desire for 
any rules of instruction ; for the very demonstration of your 
methods of defence, as stated by yourself, I regard as no 
ordinary instruction." " But if you are so disposed," said 
Antonius, " I will tell you what maxims I adopt in speaking, 
and what I keep principally in view; for a long life and 
experience in important affairs have taught me to discern by 
what means the minds of men are to be moved. 

LI. *' The first thing I generally consider is, whether the 



2S0 DE ORATORE j OR, [B. II. 

cause requires that the minds of the audience should be 
excited; for such fiery oratory is not to be exerted on trivial 
subjects, nor when the minds of men are so affected that we 
can do nothing by eloquence to influence their opinions, lest 
"rve be thought to deserve ridicule or dislike, if we either act '\ 
tragedies about trifles or endeavour to pluck up what canno^/ 
be moved. For as the feelings on which we have to work in 
the minds of the judges, or whoever they may be before 
whom we may plead, are love, hatred, anger, envy, pity, hope, 
PVj /^<^^j anxiety, we are sensible that love may be gained if 
you seem to advocate what is advantageous to the persons 
before whom you are speaking; or if you appear to exert 
yourself in behalf of good men, or at least for such as are 
good and serviceable to them ; for the latter case more en- 
gages favour, the former, the defence of virtue, esteem; and 
if a hope of future advantage is proposed, it has a greater 
effect than the mention of past benefits. You must endea- 
vour to show that in the cause which you defend, either 
their dignity or advantage is concerned; and you should 
signify that he for whom you solicit their love has referred 
nothing to his own private benefit, and done nothing at all 
for his own sake; for dislike is felt for the selfish gains of 
individuals, while favour isr shown to their desires to serve 
others. But we must take care, while we are on this topic, 
not to appear to extol the merit and glory of those whom we 
would wish to be esteemed for their good deeds, too highly, 
as these qualities are usually the greatest objects of envy. 
From these considerations, too, we shall learn how to draw 
hatred on our adversaries, and to avert it from ourselves and our 
friends. The same means are to be used, also, either to excite 
or allay anger; for if you exaggerate every fact that is hurtful 
or disadvantageous to the audience, their hatred is excited; 
but if anything of the kind is thrown out against men of 
worth, or against characters on whom no one ought to cast any 
reflection, or against the public, there is then produced, if not 
so violent a degree of hatred, at least an unfavourable feeling, 
,Qr displeasure near akin to hatred. Fear is also inculcated 
either from people's own dangers or those of the public. Per- 
sonal fear affects men more deeply ; but that which is common 
to all is to be treated by the orator as having similar influence.^ 
^ Since public or common fear must aiffect individuals. 



C. LII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 281 

LI I. '^ Similar, or rather the same, is the case with regard 
to hope, joy, and anxiety; but I know not whether the feeling 
of envy is not by far the most violent of all emotions ; nor does 
it require less power to suppress than to excite it. Men envy 
chiefly their equals or inferiors w^hen they perceive them- 
selves left behind, and are mortified that the others have 
outstripped them; but there is often a strong unfavourable 
feeling towards superiors, which is the stronger if they are 
intolerably arrogant, and transgress the fair bounds of com- 
mon justice through super-eminence in dignity or fortune. Ii 
such advantages are to be made instruments to kindle dislike,-'- 
the chief thing to be said is, ' that they are not the acquisitions 
of virtue, that they have even been gained perhaps by vice 
and crime ; and that, however honourable or imposing they 
may appear, no merit was ever carried so high as the insolence 
of mankind and their contumelious disdain.' To allay envy, it 
may be observed, ^ that such advantages have been gained by 
extreme toil and imminent perils j that they have not been 
applied to the individual's own private benefit, but that of 
others ; that he himself, if he appear to have gained any glory, 
although it might not be an undue reward for danger, was not 
elated with it, but wholly set it aside and undervalued it ;' and 
such an effect must by all means be produced (since most men 
are envious, and it is a most common and prevalent vice, and 
envy is felt towards all super- eminent and flourishing fortune), 
that the opinion entertained of such characters be lowered, 
and that their fortunes, so excellent in people's imaginations, 
may appear mingled with labour and trouble. 

" Pity is excited, if he who hears can be induced to apply 
to his own circumstances those unhappy particulars .which 
are lamented in the case of others, particulars which they 
have either suffered or fear to suffer ; and while he looks at 
another, to glance frequently at himself. Thus, as all the 
circumstances incident to human suffering are heard with 
concern, if they are pathetically represented, so virtue in 
affliction and humiliation is the most sorrowful of all objects 
of contemplation ; and as that other department of eloquence 
which, by its recommendation of goodness, ought to give the 

^ QucB si inflammanda sunt. An elegant mode of expression, for 
" si ad animos invidi^ inflammandos adhibenda sunt tanquam faces." 
EmestL 



282 DE ORATOREj OR, [b. II. 

picture of a virtuous man, should be in a gentle and (as 
1 have often observed) a submissive strain, so this, which is 
adopted by the orator to effect a change in the minds of the 
audience, and to work upon them in every way, should be 
vehement and energetic. 

LIII. " But there is a certain resemblance in these two 
kinds (one of which we would have to be gentle, the other 
vehement), that makes it difficult to distinguish them. For 
something of that lenity with which we conciliate the affec- 
tions of an audience, ought to mingle with the ardour with 
which we awaken their passions ; and something of this ardour 
should occasionally communicate a warmth to our gentleness 
of language; nor is there any species of eloquence better 
tempered than that in which the asperity of contention in 
the orator is mitigated by his humanity, or in which the 
relaxed tone of lenity is sustained by a becoming gravity and 
energy. But in both modes of speaking, as well that in which 
spirit and force are required as that which is brought down to 
ordinary life and manners, the beginning should be slow, but 
the sequel full and diffuse.^ For you must not spring at\ 
once into the pathetic portion of your speech, as it forms no 
part of the question, and men are first desirous to learn the 
very point that is to come under their judgment ; nor, when 
you have entered upon that track, are you suddenly to di- 
verge from it ; for you are not to suppose that as an argument 
is understood as soon as it is stated, and a second and a third 
are then desired, so you can with the same ease move com- 
passion, or envy, or anger, as soon as you make the attempt.^ 
Eeason itself confirms an argument which fixes itself in the 
mind • as soon as it is delivered ; but that sort of eloquence 
does not aim at instructing the judge, but rather at agitating 
his mind by excessive emotion, which no one can produce 
unless by fulness and variety and even copiousness of lan- 
guage, and a proportionate energy of delivery. Those, there- 
fore, who speak either with brevity, or in a low submissive 
strain, may indeed inform the judge, but can never move 
him, an effect on which success altogether depends. 

^ Exitus spissi et prodiccti esse dehent. " Non abrupti, sed lenti." 
Bllendt. "Yehementes et longiores." Proust, 

2 Simul atqice intultris. Rem sc. "As soon as you have introduced 
the subject." 



^. LI v.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 283 

'• It is clear, that the ability of arguing on every subject on 
both sides of the question is drawn from the same considera- 
tions. But we must resist the force of an argument, either 
by refuting those things which are assumed in support of it, 
or by showing that the conclusion which our opponents 
would draw cannot be deduced from the premises, or possibly 
follow from them; or, if you cannot refute an argument in 
this manner, you must bring something against it of greater 
or equal weight. But whatever is delivered with gentleness 
to conciliate favour, or with vehemence to excite emotion, is 
to be obviated ^ by moving contrary feelings, so that benevo- 
lence may be eradicated by hatred, and compassion be 
dispelled by jealousy. 

Liy. " A jocose manner, too, and strokes of wit, give 
pleasure to an audience, and are often of great advantage 
to the speaker; qualities which, even if everything else 
can be taught by art, are certainly peculiar gifts of nature, 
and require no aid from instruction. In that department 
you, Csesar, in my opinion, far excel all other men ; on 
which account you can better bear me testimony, either 
that there is no art in wdt, or, if there be any, you will 
best instruct us in it." "I indeed," says Caesar, ^^ think 
that a man who is not destitute of polite learning can dis- 
course upon any subject more wittily than upon wit itsel£ 
Accordingly, when I met with some Graek books entitled 
^On Jests,' I conceived some hope that I might learn something 
from them. I found, it is true, many laughable and witty 
sayings of the Greeks ; for those of Sicily excel in that way, 
as well as the Bhodians and Byzantines, but, above all, the 
people of Attica. But they who have attempted to deliver 
rules and principles on that subject, have shown themselves 
so extremely foolish, that nothing else in them has excited 
laughter but their folly. This talent, therefore, appears to me 
incapable of being communicated by teaching. As there are 
two kinds of wit, one running regularly through a whole 
speech, the other pointed and concise; the ancients denomi- 
nated the former humour,^ the latter jesting. Each sort 

^ Orellius's text has inferenda; many others, efferenda. There have 
been various conjectures offered, as infirmanda, evertendaj ehvanda, 
infringenda. The reader may take his choice. 

2 Cavillatio. Ironical or satirical humour seems to be meant. 



284 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. II. 

has but a light name, and justly;^ for it is altogether but 
a light thing to raise a laugh. However, as you observe, 
Antonius, I have seen advantageous effects produced in plead- 
ings by the aid of wit and humour ; but, as in the former 
kind, I mean humour that runs through a speech, no aid from 
art is required, (for Nature forms and produces men to be 
facetious mimics or story-tellers ; their look, and voice, and 
mode of expression assisting their conceptions ;) so likewise 
in the other, that of occasional facetiousness, what room 
is there for art, when the joke ought to be uttered, and 
fixed in the mind of the hearer, before it appears possible to 
have been conceived ? For what assistance could my brother 
here receive from art, when, being asked by Phihppus why he 
barked so, he replied. Because he saw a thief 1 Or what aid 
could Crassus have received in that whole speech which he 
delivered before the Centumviri, in opposition to Scsevola, or 
when he pleaded for Cneius Plancus against the accusation of 
Brutus % For that talent which you, Antonius, attribute to 
me, must be allowed to Crassus by the confession of all man- 
kind; since hardly any person can be found besides him 
eminent in both these kinds of wit, that which runs through 
a continued discourse, and that which consists in smartness and 
occasional jokes. His whole defence in the cause of Curius, in 
opposition to Scsevola, was redundant with a certain pleasantry 
and humour ; but of those sharp short jests it had none; for 
he was tender of the dignity of his opponent, and in that 
respect maintained his own; though it is extremely difi&cult for 
men of wit and facetiousness to preserve a regard to persons 
and times, and to suppress what occurs to them when it may 
be expressed with most pungent effect. Accordingly, some 
jesters put a humorous interpretation upon the well-known 
words of Ennius; for he said, as they observe, That a wise 
man can more easily keep in flame while his mouth is on fire, 
than withhold ' bona dicta^ good words ; and they say that 
good words mean witty sayings ; for sayings are called dicta 
by an appropriate term. 

LV. ^' But as Crassus forbore from such jests in his speech 
against Scaevola, and sported throughout that cause and dis- 
cussion with that other species of humour in which there are 

^ Quippe; leve enim, &c. Quippe is equivalent to the Greek ^Ikotms. 
Ellendt. 



C. LV.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 285 

no stings of sarcasm; so in that against Brutus, Trhom he 
hated, and thought deserving of insult, he fought with both 
kinds of wit. How many severe things did he say about the 
baths which Brutus had lately sold ? how many on the loss of 
his paternal estate 1 And they were concise ; as when Brutus, 
speaking of himself, said that he sweated without cause. 'No 
wonder that you sweat,' said Crassus, 'for you are just turned 
out of the baths' There were innumerable things of this kind 
in the speech, but his continuous vein of pleasantry was not 
less amusing ; for when Brutus had called up two readers, 
and had given to one the speech of Crassus upon the colony of 
Narbonne, to the other that on the Servilian law, to read, and 
had compared together the contradictory sections on public 
affairs contained in each, our friend very facetiously gave the 
three books of Brutus's father, written on the civil law, to 
three different persons to read. Out of the first book was 
read this sentence, ' It happened by chance that we were on 
my estate at Privernum.' On which clause Crassus made 
this observation, 'Brutus, your father testifies that he left you 
an estate at Frivernum.' Again, out of the second book, ' My 
son Marcus and I were at my Alban villa;' when Crassus 
remarked, ' This wise man, who was justly ranked among 
the wisest in our city, had evidently some foreknowledge of this 
spendthrift's character, amd was afraid, that when he came to 
have nothing, it might he imagined that nothing was left him^ 
Afterwards out of the third book, with which the author con- 
cluded his work, (for that number of books, as I have heard 
Scaevola say, are the genuine compositions of Brutus,) ' It 
chanced that my son Marcus and myself were sitting in my 
villa near Tibur ;' when Crassus exclaimed, ' Where are those 
estates now, Brutus, that your father left you, as recorded in his 
public commentaries ? But if he had not seen you arrived at the 
age of puberty, he would have composed a fourth book, and left 
it in writing that he talked with his son in his own baths' 
Who does not acknowledge, now, that Brutus was not less con- 
futed by this humour, these comic jests, than by that tragic 
tone which the same orator adopted, when by accident, 
during the hearing of the same cause, the funeral procession 
of the old lady Junia passed by % Ye immortal gods ! what 
force and energy w^as that with which he spoke ! how unex- 
pected! how sudden! when, casting his eyes that way, with 



286 DE oratore; or, [b. ii. 

his whole gesture directed towards Brutus, with the utmost 
gravity and rapidity of expression, he exclaimed, 'Brutus, why 
do you sit still 1 What would you have that old lady communi- 
cate to your father ? What to all those whose statues you see carried 
by ? What to your other ancestors 1 What to Lucius Brutus, who 
freed this people from regal tyranny ? What shall she say that 
you are doing ? What business, what glory ^ what virtue shall she 
say that you are pursuing ? That you are engaged in increasing 
your patrimony ? But that is no characteristic of nobility. Yet 
suppose it were; you have none left to increase ; your extrava- 
gance has squandered the whole of it. That you are studying the 
civil law ? That was your father's pursuit; but she ivill relate 
that when you sold your house, you did not even among the 
7noveables^ reserve the chair fi^om which your father answered his 
clients. That you are applying to the military art ? You who 
have never seen a camp. Or to eloquence 1 But no portion of 
eloquence dwells in you ; and such power of voice and tongue 
as you have, you have devoted to the infamous trade of a com- 
mon informer. Bare you even behold the light ? Or looh this 
assembly in the face '^ Dare you present yourself in the forum, 
in the city, in the joublic assembly of the citizens ? Do you not 
fear even that dead corpse, and those very images of your an- 
cestors, you who have 7iot only left yourself no room for the 
imitation of their virtues, but none in which you can place their 
statues ? ' 

LYI. " This is in a tragic and sublime strain of language ; 
but you all recollect instances without number of facetious- 
ness and polite humour in one speech; for never was there 
a more vehement dispute on any occasion, or an oration of 
greater power delivered before the people, than that of 
Crassus lately in his censorship, in opposition to his col- 
league, nor one better seasoned with wit and humour. I 
agree with you, therefore, Antonius, in both points, that 
jesting is often of great advantage in speaking, and that it 
cannot be taught by any rules of art. But I am astonished 
that you should attribute so much power to me in that way, 
and not assign to Crassus the palm of pre-eminence in this as 

^ Ne in rutis quidem et ccesis. Ruta were such things as could be 
removed from houses and other premises without pulling down or 
damaging any portion of them ; ccBsa, as Proust remarks, refers to the 
catting down of trees. 



C. LVII.] OX THE CHAEACTER OF THE ORATOR. 287 

in other departments of eloquence." " I should have done 
so/' said Antonius, ^^ if I had not sometimes envied Crassus 
a little in this respect ; for to be ever so facetious and witty 
is not of itself an extraordinary subject of envy ; but, 
when you are the most graceful and polite of speakers, to be, 
and to be thought, at the same time, the most grave and 
dignified of men, a distinction which has been granted to 
Crassus alone, seems to me almost unendurable." Crassus 
having smiled at this, Antonius said, ^' But, Julius, while you 
denied that art had anything to do with facetiousness, you 
brought to our notice something that seemed worthy of pre- 
cept ; for you said that regard ought to be paid to persons, 
times, and circumstances, that jesting might not detract from 
dignity ; a rule which is particularly observed by Crassus. 
But this rule only directs that jokes should be suppressed 
when there is no fair occasion for themj what we desire to 
know is, how we may use them when there is occasion; as 
against an adversary, especially if his folly be open to attack, 
or against a foolish, covetous, trifling witness, if the audience 
seem disposed to listen patiently. Those sayings are more 
likely to be approved which we utter on provocation, than 
those which we utter when we begin an attack; for the 
quickness of wit, which is shown in answering, is more re- 
markable, and to reply is thought allowable, as being natural 
to the human temper; since it is presumed that we should 
have remained quiet if we had not been attacked; as in that 
very speech to which you alluded scarcely anything was said 
by our friend Crassus here, anything at least that was at all 
humorous, which he did not utter in reply, and on provocation. 
For there was so much gravity and authority in Domitius,^ 
that the objections which came from him seemed more likely 
to be enfeebled by jests than broken by arguments." 

LVII. Sulpicius soon after said, ^' Shall we, then, suffer 
Caesar, who, though he allows wit to Crassus, is yet himself 
far more intent on acquiring a character for it, to exempt 

^ Cneius Domitius Ahenobarbus, in Lis tribuneship, A.U.C. 651, was 
hostile to the pontifices, because they had not chosen him in the place 
of his father, and proposed a law that those who were chosen by the 
pontifices into their body should not be appointed till their choice was 
sanctioned by the people. Yell. Pat. ii. 12 ; Suet. Iser. 2 ; Cic. Rull. 
ii. 7. He had some ability in speaking, but was not numbered among 
eminent orators. Cic. Brut. 45. Henrichsen. 



288 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. II. 

himself from explaining to ns the whole subject of humour, 
what is the nature of it, and from whence derived; espe- 
cially as he owns that there is so much efficacy and advantage 
in wit and jesting^" "What if I agree with Antonius," re- 
joined Caesar, " in thinking that art has no concern with wit ?" 
As Sulpicius made no remark, " As if," said Crassus, " art 
could at all assist in acquiring those talents of which An- 
tonius has been so long speaking. There is a certain obser- 
vation to be paid, as he remarked, to those particulars which 
are most effective in oratory; but if such observation could 
make men eloquent, who would not be so? For who could 
not learn these particulars, if not with ease, at least in some 
way ? But I think that of such precepts, the use and advan- 
tage is, not that we may be directed by art to find out what 
we are to say, but that we may either feel certain as to what 
we attain by natural parts, by study, or by exercise, that 
it is right, or understand that it is wrong, having been in- 
structed to what rule the several particulars are to be referred. 
I, therefore, also join in the petition to you, Caesar, that you 
would, if it is agreeable to you, tell us what you think on 
jocoseness in general, lest, by accident, any part of eloquence, 
since that is your object, should appear to have been passed 
over in so learned an assembly, and such a studied con- 
versation." " Well, then, Crassus," replied Csesar, " since 
you require payment from a guest, I will, by refusing it, 
furnish you with a pretext for refusing to entertain us again ; 
though I am often astonished at the impudence of those who 
act upon the stage while Roscius is a spectator of their 
attitudes ; for who can make the least motion without Roscius 
seeing his imperfections'? So I shall now have to speak first 
on wit in the hearing of Crassus, and to teach like a swine,^ 
as they say, that orator of whom Catulus said, when he 
heard him lately. That other speakers ought to he fed upon 
hay.'' ^ " Ah !" said Crassus, " Catulus was joking, especially 
as he speaks himself in such a manner that he seems to 
deserve to be fed on ambrosia. But let us hear you, Caesar, 
that we may afterwards return to the remainder of the 
discourse of Antonius." " There is little remaining for me 

* An allusion to the proverb Sus Minervam. 

2 He signified that other pleaders were mere brute animals in com- 
parison with Crassus, and therefore to be fed upon hay. Turnebus, 



C. LVIII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 289 

to say," replied Antonius; "but as I am wearied with the 
labour and the length of what I have said, I shall repose 
during the discourse of Caesar as in some opportune place of 
entertainment." LYIII. " But/' said Caesar, '' you will not 
pronounce my entertainment very liberal ; for as soon as you 
have tasted a little I shall thrust you out, and turn you into 
the road again. However, not to detain you any longer, I 
will deliver my sentiments very briefly on this department 
of eloquence in general. 

" Concerning laughter, there are five things which are sub- 
jects of consideration: one, 'What it is;' another, 'Whence 
it originates;' a third, 'Whether it becomes the orator to 
wish to excite laughter;' a fourth, 'To what degree;' a fifth, 
' What are the several kinds of the ridiculous ? ' As to the 
first, ' What laughter itself is,' by what means it is excited, 
where it lies, how it arises, and bursts forth so suddenly that 
we are unable, though we desire, to restrain it, and how it 
affects at once the sides, the face, the veins, the countenance, 
the eyes, let Democritus consider; for all this has nothing to 
do with my remarks, and if it had to do with them, I should 
not be ashamed to say that I am ignorant of that which not 
even they understand who profess to explain it. But the seat 
and as it were province of what is laughed at, (for that is 
the next point of inquiry,) lies in a certain ofiensiveness 
and deformity; for those sayings are laughed at solely or 
chiefly which point out and designate something ofiensive in 
an inofiensive manner. But, to come to the third point, it 
certainly becomes the orator to excite laughter; either because 
mirth itself attracts favour to him by whom it is raised ; or 
because all admire wit, which is often comprised in a single 
word, especially in him who replies, and sometimes in him 
who attacks; or because it overthrows the adversary, or 
hampers him, or makes light of him, or discourages, or refutes 
him ; or because it proves the orator himself to be a man of 
taste, or learning, or polish; but chiefly because it mitigates 
and relaxes gravity and severity, and often, by a joke or a 
laugh, breaks the force of offensive remarks, which cannot 
easily be overthrown by arguments. But to what degree the 
laughable should be carried by the orator requires very dili- 
gent consideration; a point which we placed as the fourth 
subject of inquiry; for neither great vice, such as is united 

u 



290 DE oratoee; or, [b. h, 

with crime, nor great misery, is a subject for ridicule and 
laughter ; since people will have those guilty of enormous 
crimes attacked with more forcible weapons than ridicule ; . 
and do not like the miserable to be derided, unless perhaps 
when they are insolent ; and you must be considerate, too, 
of the feelings of mankind, lest you rashly speak against 
those who are. personally beloved. 

LIX. "Such is the caution that must be principally observed 
in joking. Those subjects accordingly are most readily jested 
upon which are neither provocative of violent aversion, nor of 
extreme compassion. All matter for ridicule is therefore 
found to lie in such defects as are to be observed in the 
characters of men not in universal esteem, nor in calamitous 
circumstances, and who do not appear deserving to be dragged 
to punishment for their crimes ; such topics nicely managed 
create laughter. In deformity, also, and bodily defects, is 
found fair enough matter for ridicule ; but we have to ask 
the same question here as is asked on other points, ' How far 
the ridicule maybe carried]* In this respect it is not only 
directed that the orator should say nothing impertinently, 
but also that, even if he can say anything very ridiculously, 
he should avoid both errors, lest his jokes become either buf- 
foonery or mimicry ; qualities of which we shall better under- 
stand the nature when we come to consider the different 
species of the ridiculous. 

^^ There are two sorts of jokes, one of which is excited by 
things, the other by words. By things, whenever any matter 
is told in the way of a story; as you, Crassus, formerly 
stated in a speech against Memmius,^ That he had eaten 
a piece of Largius^s arrrij because he had had a quarrel with , 
him at Tarracina about a courtezan ; it was a witty story, but 
wholly of your own invention. You added this particular, 
that throughout Tarracina these letters were inscribed on 
every wall, MM, LLL; and that when you inquired what they 
meant, an old man of the town replied, Mordacious Memmius 
Lacerates Largiuis Limh.'^ You perceive clearly how face- 

^ The same that is mentioned by Sallust, as having accused Calpumius 
Bestia. 

2 Lacerat Lacertum Largt. Mordax Memmius. The writer of the 
article " Memmius " in Dr. Smith's Biog. Diet, thinks that Memmius had 
from some cause the nickname of Mordax. The story of his having 



C. LX.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 291 

tious this mode of joking may be, how elegant, how suitable 
to an orator ; whether you have any true story to tell, (which 
however must be interspersed with fictitious circumstances,) 
or whether you merely invent. The excellence of such jesting 
is, that you can describe things as occurring in such a way, 
that the manners, the language, and every look of the person 
of whom you speak, may be represented, so that the occur- 
rence may seem to the audience to pass and take place at the 
very time when you address them. Another kind of jest 
taken from things, is that which is derived from a depraved 
sort of imitation, or mimicry ; as when Crassus also exclaimed, 
Bi/ your nobility^ hy your family, what else was there at which 
the assembly could laugh but that mimicry of look and tone ? 
But when he said, hy your statues, and added something of 
gesture by extending his arm, we all laughed immoderately.-^ 
Of this species is Roscius's imitation of an old man ; when 
he says, 

For you, my Antiplio, I plant these trees, ^ 

it is, old age itself that seems to speak while I listen to him. 
But all this department of ridicule is of such a nature that it 
must be attempted with the greatest caution. For if the 
imitation is too extravagant, it becomes, like indecency, the 
part of players in pantomime and farce ; the orator should be 
moderate in imitation, that the audience may conceive more 
than they can see represented by him ; he ought also to give 
proof of ingenuousness and modesty, by avoiding everything 
offensive or unbecoming in word or act. 

LX. " These, therefore, are the two kinds of the ridiculous 
which is drawn from things ; and they suit well with con- 
tinuous pieces of humour, in which the manners of mankind 
are so described and expressed^ that, either by meajis of some 
narrative, their character is exactly understood, or, by throw- 
ing in a little mimicry, they may be convicted of some 
impropriety remarkable enough for ridicule. But in ujords, 
the ridiculous is that which is excited by the point of a par- 
eaten or bitten Largius's arm, appears, from what Cicero says, to have 
been a mere invention of Ci^ssus. We do not half understand the joke. 

^ This jest is from a speech of Crassus against Domitius. The ^e«^ 
Bomitia, a family of great nobility, had produced many patriciiOift 
remarkable, as well for other vices, as for vanity. ElkiidL 

* These words are from some plav now lost>. 

u2 



292 DE oratore; or, [b. ii. 

ticular expression or thought : but as, in the former kind, 
both in narration and imitation, all resemblance to the 
players of pantomime should be avoided, so, in this, all 
scurrilous buffoonery is to be studiously shunned by the 
orator. How, then, shall we distinguish from Crassus, from 
Catulus, and from others, your acquaintance Granius, or my 
friend Yargula ? No proper distinction really occurs to me ; 
for they are both witty ; no man has more of verbal wit- 
ticism than Granius. The first point to be observed, how- 
ever, is, I think, that we should not fancy ourselves obliged 
to utter a jest whenever one may be uttered. A very little 
witness was produced. May I question Mm? says Philippus. 
The judge who presided,^ being in a hurry, replied. Yes, 
if he is short. You shall have no fault to find, said Philippus, 
for I shall question him very short. This was ridiculous 
enough; but Lucius Aurifex was sitting as judge in the 
cause, who was shorter than the witness himself; so that all 
the laughter was turned upon the judge, and hence the joke 
appeared scurrilous. Those good things, therefore, which hit 
those whom you do not mean to hit, however witty they are, 
are yet in their nature scurrilous; as when Appius, who 
would be thought witty, — and indeed is so, but sometimes 
slides into this fault of scurrility, — said to Caius Sextius, an 
acquaintance of mine, who is blind of an eye, / will sup with 
you to-night, for I see that there is a vacancy for one. This 
-was a scurrilous joke, both because he attacked Sextius 
without provocation, and said what was equally applicable 
to all one-eyed persons. Such jokes, as they are thought 
premeditated, excite less laughter; but the reply of Sextius 
was excellent and extempore: Wash your hands^ said he, 
and come to supper. A regard, therefore, to proper times, 
moderation and forbearance in jesting, and a limitation in 
the number of jokes, will distinguish the orator from the 
buffoon; and the circumstance, besides, that we joke with an | 
object, not that we may appear to be jesters, but that we may : 
gain some advantage, while they joke all day without any :!! 

^ QiicBsitor. The magistrate who presided at a qucestio capitalist 
whether the praetor or any other. See Cic. Verr. i. 10 ; Vatin. 14 ; Sail 
Jug. 40. Henrichsen. 

2 Whether the joke was directed against him as being unclean, or as 
being dishonest, is uncertain. Ellendt, 



C. LXI.] OX THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 293 

purpose whatever. For what did YargTila gain by saying, 
when Aulus Sempronius, then a candidate for office, and his 
brother Marcus, saluted him, Boy^ drive away the flies .? His 
aim was to raise a laugh, which is, in my opinion, a very poor 
effect of wit. The proper season, then, for jesting, we must 
determine by our own prudence and judgment ; in the exer- 
cise of which I wish that we had some body of rules to direct 
us ; but nature is the sovereign guide. 

LXI. ^' Let us- now consider briefly the sorts of jests that 
chiefly excite laughter. Let this, then, be our first division, 
that whatever is expressed wittily, consists sometimes in 
a thought, sometimes in the mere language, but that men 
are most delighted with a joke when the laugh is raised by 
the thought and the language in conjunction. But remember 
this, that whatever topics I shall touch upon, from which 
ridicule may be drawn, from almost the same topics serious 
thoughts may be derived : there is only this difference, that 
seriousness is used on dignified subjects with gravity, joking 
on such as are in some degree unbecoming, and as it were 
grotesque; for instance, we may with the very same words 
commend a thrifty servant, and jest upon one that is ex- 
travagant. That old saying of Nero ^ about a thieving servant 
is humorous enough. That he ivas the only one from whom 
nothing in the house was sealed or locked up; a thing which 
is not only said of a good servant, but in the very same 
words. From the same sources spring all kinds of sayings. 
What his mother said to Spurius Carvilius, who halted griev- 
ously from a wound received in the public service, and was 
on that account ashamed to go out of doors, Go, my Spurius, 
that as often as you take a step you may he reminded of your 
merits, was a noble and serious thought; but what Glaucia 
said to Calvinus, when he limped. Where is the old proverb — 
Does he claudicate 1 no ; hut he clodicates^' is ridiculous; and 

^ Probably taken from the apopbtbegms of Cato, and probably, also, 
a saying of Cains Claudius Nero, who wa^ consul with Marcus Livius, 
A.U.C. 547, and defeated Hannibal at Sena. Liv. xxvii. 34. Ellendt. 

^ The original is, Num claudicat ? at hie dodicat. " What,- is he 
lame ? iSTo ; but he favours Clodius." The reader easily sees that the 
force of the pun, which is bad enough at the first hand, is entirely lost 
by a literal translation. I have been forced to coin two English words 
from the Latin to convey some idea of it. Had Clodius lived in this 
country, and his name be^n Greville, I had been as happy as Glaucia ; 



294 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. H. 

yet both are derived from what may be observed with regard 
to lameness. What is more ignave than this JVcevius ? ^ said 
Scipio with severity; but Philippus, with some humour, to 
one who had a strong smell, / perceive that I am circumvented 
hy you;'^ yet it is the resemblance of words, with the change 
only of a letter, that constitutes both jokes. 

-' Those smart sayings which spring from some ambiguity 
are thought extremely ingenious; but they are not always 
employed to express jests, but often even grave thoughts. 
What Publius Licinus Varus said to Africanus the elder, 
when he was endeavouring to fit a chaplet to his head at an 
entertainment, and it broke several times, Do not wonder if 
it does not fit you, for you have a great head, w^as a fine and 
noble thought ; but He is hold enough, for he says hut little^^ 
is of the same sort. Not to be tedious, there is no subject for 
jest from which serious and grave reflections may not be 
drawn. It is also to be observed that everything which is 
ridiculous is not witty; for what can be so ridiculous as a 
buffoon ? ^ But it is by his face, his appearance, his look, his 
mimicry, his voice, and, in fine'', by his whole figure, that he 

for then I could have said, " Where is the old proverb, What, is he 
gravelled ? No ; but he is Grevilled. B. Num claudicat is thought 
bv Strebseus to have been a common question with regard to a man 
suspected of want of judgment or honesty. 

^ Quid hoc Ncevio ignavius ? It is thought to have been a joke of 
Publius Africanus Major, who, according to some, was accused by the 
Petilii, tribunes of the people, or, according to others, by a certain 
Marcus Nsevius. See Liv. xxxviii. 50, 56; Val. Max. iii. 7; A. Gell. 
iv. 18. But it might have been said by Africanus the younger in 
reference to some other man. Ellendt. 

2 Video me a te circumveniri. Toup, in his Appendix to Theocritus, 
suggests that we should read Video me a te non circum, sed hircum- 
veniri, referring to a similar joke of Aristophanes, Acharn. 850. 

^ Calvus satis est, quod dicit parum. The meaning is by no means 
clear, and no change in the punctuation elucidates it Pearce sup- 
poses that it is said of a bad orator : " If he were to say more, he would 
giye less satisfaction ; what he has said is so far satisfactory, as it is 
brief." .... Henrichsen thinks that calvus might be used metaphori- 
cally, as calva oratio for jejicna ; and that the joke is on the ambiguity 
of the word. To me the passage seems inexplicable. Ellendt. Whether 
calvus in the text be a proper name or not, is a matter of uncertainty ; 
Turnebus thinks it is not. 

* Sannio. The sanniones were so called from sanna, a grimace, and 
personated ridiculous characters, like the Arlecchini or Pulcinelli of the 
Italians. Ellendt. 



C. LXII.] ON THE CHARACTER OP THE ORATOR. 295 

excites laughter. I might, indeed, call him witty, but not in 
such a way that I would have an orator, but an actor in 
pantomime, to be witty. 

LXII. " This kind of jesting, above all, then, though it 
powerfully excites laughter, is not suited to us ; it represents 
the morose, the superstitious, the suspicious, the vainglorious, 
the foolish; — habits of mind which are in themselves ridi- 
culous; and such kind of characters we are to expose, not to 
assume. There is another kind of jesting which is extremely 
ludicrous, namely mimicry ; but it is allowable only in us to 
attempt it cautiously, if ever we do attempt it, and but for a 
moment, otherwise it is far from becoming to a man of edu- 
cation. A third is distortion of features, utterly unworthy 
of us. A fourth is indecency in language, a disgrace not only 
to the forum, but to any company of well-bred people. So 
many things, then, being deducted from this part of oratory, 
the kinds of jesting which remain are (as I distinguished 
them before) such as consist in thought or in expression. 
That which, in whatever terms you express it, is still wit, 
consists in the thought; that which by a change of words 
loses its spirit, has no wit but what depends on expression. 

" Plays on ambiguous words are extremely ingenious, but 
depend wholly on the expression, not on the matter. They 
seldom, however, excite much laughter, but are rather com- 
mended as jests of elegance and scholarship; as that about 
Titius, whom, being a great tennis-player, and at the same 
time suspected of having broken the sacred images by night, 
Terentius Vespa excused, when his companions inquired for 
him, as he did not come to the Campus Martins, by saying 
that he had hroken an arm. Or as that of Africanus, which 
is in Lucilius, 

Q^Ujid ? Decius, nuculam an confixum vis facer e ? inquit.^ 



^ This verse of Lucilius would be unintelligible to us,, even if we 
f^ere certain that the reading of it is sound. Heusinger thinks that 
Lucilius referred to the game played with nuts, which the author of 
the elegy entitled " Nux " mentions : Quas puer aut rectus certo dila- 
ninat ictu. Others think that confixum facer e signifies merely confi- 
jere. Ernesti supposes that a sort of dish, made of pieces of flesh, 
fricasee, is meant. Schutz suggests that, if this be the meaning of 
confixum, some kind of eatable must be intended by nucula. But this 
profits us nothing. Ellendt. 



296 DE ORATOEE j OR, [b. II. 

Or, as your friend Granius, Crassus, said of somebody, That 
he was not worth the sixth part of an as} And if you were 
to ask me, I should say that he who is called a jester, excels 
chiefly in jokes of this kind; but that other jests excite 
laughter in a greater degree. The ambiguous gains great 
admiration, as I observed before, from its nature, for it ap- 
pears the part of a wit to be able to turn the force of a word 
to quite another sense than that in which other people take 
it ; but it excites surprise rather than laughter, unless when 
it happens to be joined with some other sorts of jesting. 
LXIII. '^ Some of these sorts of jesting I will now run over : 
/but you are aware that that is the most common kind of joke, 
when we expect one thing and another is said ; in which case 
our own disappointed expectation makes us laugh. But if 
something of the ambiguous is thrown in with it, the wit is 
heightened; as in JSTaevius, a man seems to be moved with 
compassion who, seeing another, that was sentenced for debt, 
being led away, inquires, For how much is he adjudged ? 
He is answered, A thousand sestertii. If he had then added 
only, You may tahe him away, it would have been a species 
of joke that takes you by surprise; but as he said, I add 
no more; you may taTce him away, (thus introducing the 
ambiguous, another kind of jest,) the repartee, as it seems 
to me, is rendered witty in the highest degree. Such equi- 
vocation is most happy, when, in any dispute, a word is 
caught from your adversary, and thence something severe is 
turned upon the very person who gave the provocation, as by 
Catulus upon Philippus.^ But as there are several sorts of 
ambiguity, with regard to which accurate study is necessary, 
we should be attentive and on the watch for words ; and thus, 
though we may avoid frigid witticisms, (for we must be cau- 
tious that a jest be not thought far-fetched,) we shall hit upon 
many acute sayings. Another kind is that wl lich consists in 
a slight change in a word, which, when produced by the alte- 
ration of a letter, the Greeks call irapovofxaaia, as Cato called 
Nobilior^ Mohilior ; or as, when he had said to a certain 

^ Non esse sextardis. A phrase applied either to anything worth more 
than a sextans, and therefore perhaps of great value, or to anything 
worth less than a sextans, or of no value at all. Turnebus. 

^ See c. 54. 

2 Marcus Fulvius Nobilior. Cat© had accused him of having taken 



0. LXIV.J ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 297 

person, Eamus deamhulatum, and the other asked, Quid opus 
fuit veI Cato rejoined, /mo verd, quid opus fuit te?^ Or 
that repartee of the same Cato, If you are both adverse 
and averse in your shameless practices. The interpretation 
of a name also has wit in it^ when you assign a ridiculous 
reason why a person is so called ; as I lately said of 
Nummius, who distributed money ^ at elections, that he had 
found a name in the Campus Martins as Neoptolemus found 
one at Troy. 

LXIY. "All such jokes lie in a single word. Often too 
a verse is humorously introduced, either just as it is, or with 
some little alteration; or some part of a verse, as Statins 
said to Scaur us when in a violent passion : (whence some 
say, Crassus, that your law ^ on citizenship had its rise :) 

Hush ! Silence ! what is all this noise ? Have you, 
Who neither have a father nor a mother, 
Such confidence ? Away with all that pride. 

In the case of Cselius, that joke of yours, Antonius, was 
assuredly of advantage to your cause; when, appearing as a 
witness, he had admitted that a great deal of money had 
gone from him, and as he had a son who was a man of plea- 
sure, you, as he was going away, said. 

See you the old man, touch'd for thirty minse ? 

To the same purpose proverbs may be applied; as in the 
joke of Scipio, when Asellus was boasting that while he had 
served in the army, he had marched through all the pro- 
vinces, Drive an ass, <&c^ Such jokes, as they cannot, if any 

poets with him into his province, and called him Mohilior, to denote his 
levity, which, among the Romans, who were fond of gravity and steadi- 
ness, was a great crime. Turnebus. See Cic. Tusc. Qusest. i. 2. He 
had also built a temple to the Muses. Cic. ib. et Arch. c. 11 ; Brut. 
c. 20 ; Plin. H. N. xxxv. 36. Ellendt. 

^ This appears to us moderns a very poor joke. No translation can 
make it intelligible to those who do not understand the original. 

2 Divisorem. Bivisores were those who distributed money among the 
tribes, in the name of the candidates, as bribes for their votes. See 
Cic. Yerr. i. 8 ; Plane. 19. Bllendt. 

^ The Lex Licinia Mucia de civibus regendis, A.u.c. 659, by which it 
was provided that no one should be accounted a citizen who was not 
really a citizen. Cic. Off. iii. 11. Ellendt. 

* Turnebus thinks that the reference is to the Greek proverb, Et /xr) 



298 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. II, 

change is made in the words of them, retain the same grace, 
are necessarily considered as turning, not on the matter, but 
on the mere expression. 

'' There is also a kind of joke, not at all absurd, which lies 
in expression, when you seem to understand a thing literally, 
and not in its obvious meaning; in which kind it was that 
Tutor,^ the old mimic, an exceedingly laughable actor, ex- 
clusively distinguished himself. But I have nothing to do 
with actors; I only wished this kind of jesting to be illus- 
trated by some notable example. Of this kind was your 
answer lately, Crassus, to one who asked you whether he 
should he troublesome if he came to you some time before it was 
light : and you said, You will not be troublesome : when he 
rejoined. You will order yourself to he waked then ? to which 
you replied, Surely I said that you would not he troublesome. 
Of the same sort was that old joke which they say that Mar- 
cus Scipio Maluginensis made, when he had to report from 
his century that Acidinus was voted consul, and the officer 
cried out. Declare as to Lucius Mardius, he said, / declare 
him to he a worthy man, and an excellent member of the com- 
monwealth. The answer of Lucius [Porcius] ^ Nasica to Cato 
the censor was humorous enough, when Cato said to him, Are 
you truly satisfied that you have taken a wife ? No, indeed, 
replied Nasica, / am not truly satisfied? ■ Such jests are in- 
sipid, or witty only when another answer is expected ; for 
our surprise (as I before^ observed) naturally amuses us; 
and thus, when we are deceived, as it were, in our expectation, 
we laugh. 

LXY. ^^ Those jests also lie in words, which spring from 

hvvoLLo ^ovv, ihavve ouov, *' If you cannot drive an ox, drive an ass," (see 
Apostol. Prov. vii. 53 ; Zenob. iii. 54 ; ) but that proverb seems inap- 
plicable to this passage. Talseus and Lambinus suppose, with more 
probability, that something like this must be understood : A gas asellum, 
cv/rs2cm non docebitur. Asellus is again mentioned in c. 6Q. Elleredt, 
^ Nothing is recorded of that actor in pantomime. Ellendt. 

2 This passage is corrupt, but as no emendation of it can be trusted, 
it will be sufficient to enclose Porcius in brackets. Orellius. 

3 Ex tui animi sententid tu uxorem habes ? The words ex animi sen- 
tentid had two significations : they were used by the censors in putting 
questions in the sense of " truly, sincerely ; " but they were used in 
common conversation in the sense of " to a person's satisfaction.'* From 
the ambiguity of the phrase proceeds the joke. 

* C. 63. 



G. LXVI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 299 

some allegorical phraseology, or from a metaphorical use of 
some one word, or from, using words ironically. From alle- 
gorical phraseology : as when Rusca, in old times, proposed 
the law to fix the ages of candidates for offices, and Marcus 
Servilius, who opposed the law, said to him ; Tell me, Marcus 
Pinarius Eusca, if I s^eah against you, will you speah ill of 
me as you have spohen of others ? As you shall sow, replieoS 
he, so you shall reap. From the use of a single word in a^' 
metaphorical sense : as when the elder Scipio said to the 
Corinthians, who offered to put up a statue of him in the 
place where those of other commanders were, That he did not 
like such comrades. From the ironical use of words : as 
when Crassus spoke for Aculeo before Marcus Perperna as 
judge, and Lucius ^Elius Lama appeared for Gratidianus 
against Aculeo, and Lama, who was deformed, as you know, 
offered impertinent interruptions, Crassus said, Let us hear 
this heautiful youth. When a laugh followed, / could not form 
my own shape, said Lamia, hut I could form my understand^ 
ing. Then, said Crassus, let us hear this able orator; when 
a greater laugh than before ensued. Such jests are agreeable 
as well in grave as in humorous speeches. For I observed, 
a little while ago,^ that the subjects for jest and for gravity 
are distinct ; but that the same form of expression will serve for 
grave remarks, as for jokes. Words antithetically used^ are 
a great ornament to language; and the same mode of using 
them is often also humorous; thus, when the well-known 
Servius Galba carried to Lucius Scribonius the tribune a 
list of his own intimates to be appointed as judges, and Libo 
said. What, Galba, will you never go out of your own dining- 
room ? Yes, replied Galba, when you go out of other men's bed- 
chambers. To this kind of joke the saying of Glaucia to 
Metellus is not very dissimilar : Tou have your villa at Tihur, 
but your court on mount Palatine.^ 

LXVI. " Such kinds of jokes as lie in words I think that 
I have now sufficiently discussed ; but such as relate to things 

1 C. 61. 

2 Yerha relata contrari^. Which the Greeks call dpriOera, when con- 
trariis opponuntur contraria. Cic. Or. 50. 

^ Villam in Tiburte habes, cortem in Palatio. Cors or cliors meant 
a coop, pen, or moveable sheep-fold. Schutz and Strebseus, therefore, 
suppose that Glaucia intended to designate the companions of Metellus 
as cattle, for which he had a pen on the Palatine. 



300 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. II. 

are more numerous, and excite more laughter, as I observed 
before.^ Among them is narrative, a matter of exceeding 
difficulty ; for such things are to be described and set before 
the eyes, as may seem to be probable, which is the excellence 
of narration, and such also as are grotesque, which is the 
peculiar province of the ridiculous; for an example, as the 
shortest that I recollect, let that serve which I mentioned 
before, the story of Crassus about Memmius.^ To this head 
we may assign the narratives given in fables. Allusions are 
also drawn from history ; as when Sextus Titius^ said he was 
a Cassandra, / can name, said Antonius, many of your Ajaces 
Oilei} Such jests are also derived from similitudes, which 
include either comparison or something of bodily representa- 
tion. A comparison, as when Gallus, that was once a witness 
against Piso, said that a countless sum of money had been 
given to Magius^ the governor, and Scaurus tried to confute 
him, by alleging the poverty of Magius, You mistake me, 
Scaurus, said he, for I do not say that Magius has saved it, 
hut that, like a man gathering nuts without his clothes, he has 
put it into his helly. Or, as when Marcus Cicero ^ the elder, 
the father of that excellent man our friend, said. That the men 
of our times were like the Syrian slaves ; the more Greek they 
knew, the greater knaves they were. Representations also create 
much laughter, and these commonly bear upon some defor- 
mity, or bodily defect, with a comparison to something still 
more deformed : as my own saying on Helvius Mancia, / will 
now show, said I, what sort of man you are; when he ex- 
claimed. Show us, I pray you; and I pointed with my finger 
to a Gaul represented upon the Cimbrian shield of Marius 
under the new shops ^ in the forum, with his body distorted, 
his tongue lolling out, and his cheeks flabby. A general 
laugh ensued ; for nothing was ever seen to resemble Mancic* 
so much. Or as I said to the witness Titus Pinarius, who 
twisted his chin about while he was speaking. That he might 

1 C. 61. 2 c. 59. 3 c. 11. 

* Antonius impudicos hominis mores insectatur, cum Cassandree ab 
Ajace post expugnatani Trojam vim illatam fuisse constet. Ellendt. 

^ Of Magius nothing is known. Ellendt. 

^ The grandfather of the orator, as is clearly shown by Corradus in 
Qusest. Ernesti. 

^ Sub Novis. Understand Tabernis argentariis. See P. Fabr. ad Quaest. 
Acad. iv. 22; Drakenborch ad Liv. xxvi. 27; xliv. 17. Ernesti, 



X. LXVII. I ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 301 

speak, if Tie pleased, if he had done cracking his nut. There 
are jokes, too, from things being extenuated or exaggerated 
hyperbolically, and to astonish ; as you, Crassus, said in 
a speech to the people, that Memmius fancied himself so great 
a man, that as he came into the forum he stooped his head 
at the arch of Fahius. Of which kind is the saying also, that 
Scipio is reported to have uttered at JSTumantia when he was 
angry with Metellus, that If his mother were to produce a fifth, 
she would hring forth an ass} There is also frequently acute- 
ness shown, when something obscure and not commonly 
known is illustrated by a slight circumstance, and often by 
a single word; as when Publius Cornelius, a man, as was 
suspected, of a covetous and rapacious disposition, but of great 
courage and an able commander, thanked Caius Fabricius 
for having, though he was his enemy, made him consul, 
especially during a difficult and important war. You have no 
reason to thank me, returned Fabricius, if I had rather he 
pillaged than sold for a slave. Or, as Africanus said to 
Asellus, who objected to him that unfortunate lustration in 
his censorship, I)o not wonder; for he who restored you to the 
rights of a citizen, completed the lustration and sacrificed the 
hulL There was a tacit suspicion, that Mummius seemed to 
have laid the state under the necessity of expiation by remov- 
ing the mark of ignominy from Asellus. 

LXVII. " Ironical dissimulation has also an agreeable 
effect, when you say something different from what you 
think; not after the manner to which I alluded before, when 
you say the exact reverse of what you mean, as Crassus said 
to Lamia, but when through the whole course of a speech 
you are seriously jocose, your thoughts being different 
from your words; as our friend Scaevola said to that Septu- 
muleius of Anagnia, (to whom its weight in gold was paid for 
the head of Caius Gracchus,) when he petitioned that he would 
take him as his lieutenant-general into Asia, What would you 
have, foolish man ? there is such a midtitude of had citizens 
that, I warrant you, if you stay at Rome, you will in a few 
years make a vast fortune. Fannius, in his Annals, says that 
Africanus the younger, he that was named ^milianus, was 

^ Quintus Metellus Macedonicus, as Plutarch relates in his treatise 
De Fortund Eomanorum, had four sons, whose abilities were in propor- 
tion to their ages, the youngest being the least gifted. Proust. 



C02 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. II. 

remarkable for this kind of jests ; and calls him by a Greek 
term elpwr, an ironical jester; but, according to what those 
say who know these matters better than myself, I conceive 
that Socrates, for irony and dissimulation, far excelled all 
other men in the wit and genius which he displayed. It is 
an elegant kind of humour, satirical with a mixture of gravity, 
and adapted to oratory as well as to polite conversation. 
Indeed all the kinds of humour of which I have spoken, are 
seasonings not more appropriate to law-pleadings in the 
forum, than to any other kind of discourse. For that which 
is mentioned by Cato, (who has reported many apophthegms, 
several of which have been produced by me as examples,) 
seems to me a very happy saying, that Cains Puhlius used to 
observe that Pitblius Mummius was a man for all occasions; 
so it certainly is with regard to our present subject, that there 
is no time of life in which wit and polite humour may not 
very properly be exercised. 

"But I will pursue the remainder of my subject. It is a 
kind of joking similar to a sort of dissimulation, when any- 
thing disgraceful is designated by an honourable term ; as 
when Africanus the censor removed from his tribe that cen- 
turion who absented himself from the battle in which Paulus 
commanded, alleging that he had remained in the camp to 
guard it, and inquiring why he had such a mark of ignominy 
set upon him, / do not like, replied Africanus, over vigilant 
people. It is an excellent joke, too, when you take any part 
of another person's words in a different sense from that which 
he intended; as Fabius Maximus did with Livius Salinator,^ 
when, on Tarentum being lost, Livius had still preserved the 
citadel, and had made many successful sallies from it, and 
Fabius, some years afterwards, having retaken the town, 
Livius begged him to remember that it was owing to him 
that Tarentum was retaken* How can I do otherwise than 
remember, said Fabius, for I shouM never have retaken it if 
you had not lost it. Such jokes as the following, too, are, 
though rather absurd, often on that very account extremely 

^ The same anecdote is noticed by Ciceix>/De Senecfc. e. 4 ; and Livy 
speaks of the occurrence at some length, xxvi. 25. But that the Marcus 
Livius there mentioned had not the cognomen of Salinator, but of 
Macatus, is shown by P. Wesseling, Obss. ii. 5 ; and there seems little 
doubt that Cicero made a mistake here, as in some other places* 
EllendL 



C. LXVIII.j ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 303 

amusing, and very apposite, not only to characters in plays, 
but also to us orators : 

The foolish man ! 
As soon as he had come to wealth, he died. 

That woman, what is she to yon ? 
My wife. Like you, by Hercules ! ^ 

As long as he was living at the waters 
He never ^ died. 

LXYIII. "This kind of jokes is rather trifling, and, as I 
said, fit for actors in farces; but sometimes it finds a proper 
place with us, as even one who is not a fool may express 
himself like a fool in a humorous way, as Mancia con- 
gratulated you, Antonius, when he heard that you were 
accused by Marcus Duronius of bribery in your censorship : 
At length, said he, 2/ou will have an opportunity of attending 
to your own business. Such jests excite great laughter, and 
in truth all sayings that are uttered by men of sense with 
a degree of absurdity and sarcasm, under the pretence of not 
understanding what is said to them. A joke of this kind is 
not to seem to comprehend what you comprehend very well ; 
as when Pontidius, being asked, WTiat do you tliink of him 
who is taken in adultery ? replied, That he is slow. Or such 
as was my reply to Metellus, when, at a time of levying 
troops, he would not excuse me from serving for the weakness 
of my eyes, and said to me. What I can you see nothing ? Yes 
truly, answered I, / can see your villa from the Esquiline- 
Gate? Or as the repartee of Nasica, who, having called at 
the house of the poet Ennius, and the maid-servant having 
told him, on his inquiring at the door, that Ennius was not 
at home, saw that she had said so by her master's order, and 
that he was really within : and when, a few days afterwards, 
Ennius called at Nasica's house, and inquired for him at the 

' We may suppose, says Strebaeus, the woman to have been deformed, 
and some one to have asked the man, " AATiat relation is that woman to 
you ? your sister ? " When the man answered, " My wife," the ques- 
tioner would exclaim, *' And yet, how like you she is ! I should have 
taken her for your sister ; " wittily indicating the deformity of the 
man. 

2 The joke, says Schutz, is in the word never, as if it were possible 
that a man might die several times. 

2 A reflection, says Tumebus, on the extraordinary size and magnifV- 
cence of the building. 



304 DE ORATORE j OR, [b, II. 

gate, Nasica cried out, That he vms not at home. What ? says 
Ennius, do I not hnow your voice ? You are an impudent 
fellow, rejoined Nasica; when I inqui7'ed for you, I believed 
your servant when she told me that you were not at home, 
and will not you believe me when I tell you that I am not at 
home? It is a very happy stroke, too, when he who has 
uttered a sarcasm is jested upon in the same strain in which 
he has attacked another : as when Quintus Opimius, a man 
of consular dignity, who had the report of ha.ving been 
licentious in his youth, said to Egilius, a man of wit, who 
seemed to be an effeminate person, but was in reality not 
so, How do you do, my Egilia? when will you pay me a 
visit with your distaff and sjnndle? and Egilius replied, 
/ certainly dare not; for my mother forbad me to visit women 
of bad character. 

LXIX. " There are witty sayings also which carry a con- 
cealed suspicion of ridicule; of which sort is that of the 
Sicilian, who, when a friend of his made lamentation to him, 
saying, that his wife had hanged herself upon a fig-tree, 
said, / beseech you give me some shoots of that tree, that I may 
plant them. Of the same sort is what Catulus said to a cer- 
tain bad orator, who, when he imagined that he had excited 
compassion at the close of a speech, asked our friend here, 
after he had sat down, whether he appeared to have raised 
/pity in the audience : Very great pity, replied Crassus, for I 
believe there is no one here so hard-hearted but that your speech 
seemed pitiable to him. Those jests amuse me extremely, 
which are expressed in passion and as it were with morose- 
ness ; not when they are uttered by a person really morose, 
for in that case it is not the wit, but the natural temper that 
is laughed at. Of this kind of jest there is a very humorous 
example, as it appears to me, in Nsavius : 

— Why mourn you, father ? 

Strange that I do not sing ! I am condemned. 

Contrasted with this there is a patient and cool species of the 
humorous : as when Cato received a stroke from a man 
carrying a trunk, who afterwards called to him to take care, 
he asked him, whether he carried anything else besides the 
trunk 1 There is also a witty mode of exposing folly; as 
when the Sicilian to whom Scipio, when praetor, assigned 
his host for an advocate in some cause, a man of rank but 



C. LXX.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 30^ 

extremely stupid, said, Iheseech you, prcetor, give this advocate \\\ 
^^0 my adversary, and give me none. Explanations of things, 
too, are amusing, which are given from conjecture in a sense 
far different from that which they are intended to convey, but 
with ingenuity and aptness. As when Scaurus accused Eutilius 
of bribery, (at the time when he himself was made consul, and 
Eutilius suffered a disappointment,) and showed these letters 
in Rutilius's books,^ A. F. P. R., and said that they signified, 
Actum Fide Puhlii Rutilii, ^transacted on the faith of Publius 
Eutilius;' while Eutilius declared that they meant, Ante 
Factum, Post Relatum, ^done before, entered after;' but 
Caius Canius, being on the side of Eiifus, observed that 
neither of those senses was intended by the letters : What 
then is the meaning? inquired Scaurus. JEmilius fecit, plec- 
titur Rutilius, replied Canius ; ' -^milius is guilty, Eutilius is 
punished.' 

LXX. "A union of discordant particulars is laughable: 
as, What is wanting to him, except fortune and virtue? A 
familiar reproof of a person, as if he were in error, is also 
amusing; as when Albucius taunted Granius, because, when 
something appeared to be proved by Albucius from Granius's 
writing, Granius rejoiced extremely that Scsevola^ was ac- 
I quitted, and did not understand that judgment was given 
i against the credit of his own writing. Similar to this is 
' friendly admonition by way of giving advice : as when Granius ■ 
persuaded a bad pleader, who had made himself hoarse with / 
speaking, to drink a cold mixture of honey and wine as soon ' 
as he got home : / shall ruin my voice, said he, if I do so. It 
will be better, said Granius, than to ruin your clients. It is 
a happy hit, too, when something is said that is peculiarly 
applicable to the character of some particular person; as 
when Scaurus had incurred some unpopularity for having 
taken possession of the effects of Phrygio Pompeius, a rich 
man who died without a will, and was sitting as counsel for 

^ Which Scaurus. required to be produced on the trial. 
2 Texts vary greatly in this passage. I adhere strictly to that of 
Orellius. *'It appears," says Pearce, "that Scaevola was accused of ex- 
tortion, as Cicero says in his Brutus, and in the first book De Finibus, 
' and that Albucius, to prove the accusation, brought forward some 
writing of Granius, who, when judgment was given in favour of Scaevola, 
lid not understand that it was at the same time given against his own 
writing." 

X 



306 BE ORATORE j OR, [b. II. 

: Bestia, then under impeachment, Caius Memmius the accuser, 
I as a funeral procession passed by, said. Look, Scaurus, a dead 
body is going 6y, if you can hut get possession ! But of all jokes 
none create greater laughter than something said contrary to 
expectation; of which there are examples without number. 
Such was the saying of Appius the elder,^ who, when the 
matter about the public lands, and the law of Thorius, was 
in agitation in the senate, and Lucilius was hard pressed by 
those who asserted that the public pastures were grazed by 
his cattle, said, They are not the cattle of Lucilius; you mistake; 
(he seemed to be going to defend Lucilius j) / look upon them 
asfreCy for they feed where they please. That saying also of the 
Scipio who slew Tiberius Gracchus amuses me. When, after 
many charges were made against him, Marcus Flaccus pro- 
posed Publius Mucins as one of his judges, / except against 
him J said he, he is unjust; and when this occasioned a general 
murmur, Ah! said he, / do not except against him, Conscript 
Fathers, as unjust to me, hut to everybody. But nothing could 
be more witty than the joke of our friend Crassus. When 
Silus, a witness, was injuring the cause of Piso, by something 
that he said he had heard against him, It is possible, said he, 
Silus, that the person from whom you heard this said it in 
anger. Silus assented. It is possible, too, that you did not 
rightly understand him. To this also he assented with the 
lowest of bows, expressing entire agreement with Crassus. 
It is also possible, continued Crassus, that what you say you 
have heard you never heard at all. This was so different 
from what was expected, that the witness was overwhelmed 
by a general laugh. Nsevius is full of this kind of humour, 
and it is a familiar joke. Wise man, if you are cold you will 
shake; and there are many other such sayings. 

LXXI. ^^ You may often also humorously grant to your 
adversary what he wishes to detract from you; as Caius 
Laelius, when a man of disreputable family told him that he 
was unworthy of his ancestors, replied. But, by Hercules, you 
are vmrthy of yours. Jokes, too, are frequently uttered in 
u sententious manner; as Marcus Cincius, on the day when 
he proposed his law about gifts and presents, and Caius 
Cento stood forth and asked him with some scorn, What are 

^ He is called the elder, because he had a brother of the same name, 
the father of Publius Clodivis, the enemy of Cicero. Prow&t 



C. LXXI.l ON THE HCARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 307 

you proposing, little Cincius? replied^ That you, Caius, may 
pay f 07' what you wish to use} Things also which are impos- 
sible are often wished for with much wit ; as Marcus Lepidus, 
when he lay down upon the grass, while others were taking 
their exercise in the Campus Martins, exclaimed, I wish this 
were labour. "^ It is an excellent joke also to give inquisi- 
tive people who teaze you as it were, a calm answer, of such 
a nature as they do not expect; as Lepidus the censor, when 
he deprived Antistius of Pyrgi of his horse ; ^ and his friends 

^ A species of ridicule expressed in a pithy sentence. The example 
produced requires that we should explain the Cincian law. This cannot 
be done better than in the words of Dr. Middleton. The business of 
pleading, says he, though a profession of all others the most laborious, yet 
was not among the Romans mercenary, or undertaken for any pay ; for 
it was illegal to take money, or to accept even a present for it ; but the 
richest, the greatest, and the noblest of Rome freely offered their 
talents to the service of their citizens, as the common guardians and 
protectors of the innocent and distressed. This was an institution as 
old as Romulus, who assigned the patronage of the people to the patri- 
cians or senators, without fee or reward ; but in succeeding ages, when, 
through the avarice of the nobles, it had become a custom for all clients 
to make annual presents to their patrons, by which the body of the 
citizens was made tributary as it were to the senate, M. Cincius, a tri- 
bune, published a law prohibiting all senators to take money or gifts on 
any account, and especially for pleading causes. This Cincian law was 
made in the year of Rome 549 ; and recommended to the people, as 
Cicero tells us, (De Senect. 4,) by Quintus Fabius Maximus, in the ex- 
tremity of his age. Caius Cento was one of the orators who opposed 
it. Livy, xxxiv. 4, gives us the reason for passing this law, " Quid 
legem Cinciam de donis et muneribus, nisi quia vectigalis jam et sti- 
pendiaria plebs esse seuatui cseperat ? " It is also mentioned by Tacitus, 
Annal. xi. 5 : *' Consurgunt patres legemque Cinciam flagitant, qua 
eavetur antiquitus ne quis ob causam orandam pecuniam donumve 
accipiat.'* We also find from the same author, (xi. 7,) that this law was 
not well observed in Cicero's time: "prompta sibi exempla quantis 
mercedibus P. Clodius aut C. Curio concionari soliti sint;" so the 
emperor Claudius confined the fees to be allowed not to exceed a 
certain sum, which amounted to 80^. 14s. 7c?. of our money, *' Capiendis 
pecuniis posuit modum usque ad dena sestertia, quem egressi repetun- 
darum tenerentur.*' The Cincian law, sa-ys Dr. Taylor, has been well 

, commented upon by several of the moderns, as Ranchinus ii. ; Var. vii. ; 

' Burgius i. ; Elect, xviii. ; and Brummerus. B. Turnebus understands 
the sense of the repartee to be, that patrons were not to expect thence- 
forward to live upon gifts from their clients, but must buy whatever 

'- they wished to have. 

1 2 He wishes that labour were as easy as ease. 

\ ^ Kxcludinir him from the number of the knights, to whom a hoi-^€ 

* was given at the public expense. 

x2 



308 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. II. 

called out to him, and inquired what reason Antistius could 
give his father why his horse was taken from him, when 
he was^ an excellent, industrious, modest, frugal member 
of the colony, rejoined. That I believe not a word of it. 
Some other sorts of jests are enumerated by the Greeks, 
as execrations, expressions of admiration, threats. But I 
think that I have divided these matters into too many 
heads already ; for such as lie in the force and meaning of 
a word, are commonly easy to settle and define; but in 
general, as I observed before, they are heard rather with 
approbation than laughter. Jokes, however, which lie in the 
subject and thought, are, though infinite in their varieties, 
reducible under a very few general heads ; for it is by deceiving 
expectation, by satirising the tempers of others, by playing 
humorously on our own, by comparing a thing with some- 
thing worse, by dissembling, by uttering apparent absurdities, 
and by reproving folly, that laughter is excited; and he who 
would be a facetious speaker, must be endowed with a natural 
genius for such kinds of wit, as well as with personal qualifi- 
cations, so that his very look may adapt itself to every species 
of the ridiculous; and the graver and more serious such a 
person is, as is the case with you, Crassus, so much more 
humorous do thQ sayings which fall from him generally 
appear. 

'' But now I think that you, Antonius, who said ^ that you 
would repose during my discourse, as in some place of refresh- 
ment, will, as if you had stopped in the Pomp tine Marsh, 
neither a pleasant nor a wholesome region, consider that you 
have rested long enough, and will proceed to complete the 
remainder of your journey." " I will," said Antonius, 
'' having been very pleasantly entertained by you, and 
having also acquired instruction, as well as encouragement, 
to indulge in jesting; for I am no longer afraid lest any one 
should charge me with levity in that respect, since you have 
produced such authorities as the Fabricii, the Africani, 
the Maximi, the Catos, and the Lepidi, in its favour. But 
you have heard what you desired from me, at least such 
points as it was necessary to consider and detail with par- 

1 That is, says Proust, was so reported by those who wished to 
favour him. 
» C. 57. 



C. LXXII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 309 

ticular accuracy; the rest are more easy, and arise wholly 
from what has been already said. 

LXXII. ^ "For when I have entered upon a cause, and 
traced out all its bearings in my mind, as far as I could 
possibly do so ; when I have ascertained and contemplated 
the proper arguments for the case, and those particulars by 
which the feelings of the judges may be conciliated or excited, 
I then consider what strong or weak points the cause con- 
tains ; for hardly any subject can be called into question and 
controversy in pleading, which has not both ; but to what 
degree is the chief concern. In pleading, my usual method is, 
to fix on whatever strong points a cause has, and to illus- 
trate and make the most of them, dwelling on them, insisting 
on them, clinging to them ; but to hold back from the weak 
and defective points, in such a way that I may not appear to 
shun them, but that their whole force may be dissembled and 
overwhelmed^ by the ornament and amplification of the strong 
parts. If the cause turn upon arguments, I maintain chiefly 
such as are the strongest, whether they are several or whether 
there be but one ; but if the cause depend on the conciliation 
or excitement of the feelings of the judges, I apply myself 
chiefly to that part which is best adapted to move men's 
minds. Finally, the principal point for consideration on this 
head is, that if my speech can be made more effective by 
refuting my adversary, than by supporting my own side of the 
question, I employ all my weapons against him ; but if my own 
case can be more easily supported, than that on the other side 
can be confuted, I endeavour to withdraw the attention of the 
judges from the opposite party's defence, and to fix it on my 
own. In conclusion, I adopt, on my own responsibility, two 
courses which appear to me most easy (since I cannot attempt 
what is more difficult) : one, that I make, sometimes, no reply 
at all to a troublesome or difficult argument or point ; (and at 
such forbearance perhaps somebody may reasonably laugh ; for 
who is there that cannot practise it 1 but I am now speaking 
of my own abilities, not those of others ; and I confess that, 
if any particular press very hard upon me, I usually retreat 

^ Antonius returns to the point from which he had digressed at 
c. 57. 
\ ^ Dissimulatum . . . ohruafur. The word ante, which is retained by 
Orellius, but is wanting in several manuscripts, I leave untranslated. 



310 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. IL 

from it, but in such a manner as not only not to appear to flee 
with my shield thrown away, but even with it thrown over 
my shoulders ; adopting, at the same time, a certain pomp 
and parade of language, and a mode of flight that resembles 
fighting ; and keeping upon my guard in such a way, that I 
seem to have retired, not to avoid my enemy, but to choose 
more advantageous ground;) the other is one which I think 
most of all worthy of the orator's precaution and foresight, 
and which generally occasions me very great anxiety : I am 
accustomed to study not so much to benefit the causes which 
I undertake, as not to injure them ; not but that an orator 
must aim at both objects; but it is however a much greater 
disgrace to him to be thought to have damaged a cause, than 
not to have profited it. 

LXXIII. " But what are you saying among yourselves on- 
this subject, Catulus? Do you slight what 1 say, as indeed it 
deserves to be slighted?" '' By no means," rejoined Catulus; 
'' but Csesar seemed desirous to say something on the point." 
^^ Let him say it, then, with all my heart," continued An- 
tonius, " whether he wish to confute, or to question me." ' 
^^ Indeed, Antonius," said Csesar, " I have always been the 
man to say of you as an orator, that you appeared to me in 
your speeches the most guarded of all men, and that it was 
your peculiar merit, that nothing was ever spoken by you 
that could injure him for whom you spoke. And I well 
remember, that, on entering into a conversation with Crassus 
here concerning you, in the hearing of a large company, and 
Crassus having largely extolled your eloquence, I said, that 
/"amongst your other merits , this was even the principal, that, 
you not only said all that ought to be said, but also never 
^^-said anything that ought not to be said ; and I recollect that 
he then observed to me, that your other qualities deserved 
the highest degree of praise, but that to speak what was not 
to the purpose, and to injure one's own client, was the conduct 
of an unprincipled and perfidious person ; and, consequently, 
that he did not appear to him to be a good pleader, who 
avoided doing so, though he who did so was certainly dis- 
honest. Now, if you please, Antonius, I would wish you to 
show why you think it a matter of such importance, to do no 
harm to a cause; so much so, that nothing in an orator 
appears to you of greater consequence." . 



C. LXXIV.] ON THE CHAEACTER OF THE ORATOR. 311 

LXXI V. " I will readily tell you, Caesar," replied Antonius, 
" what I mean ; but do you, and all who are here, remember 
this, that I am not speaking of the divine power of the com- 
plete orator, but of my own humble efforts and practice. The 
remark of Crassus is indeed that of an excellent and singular 
genius; to whom it appeared something like a prodigy, that 
any orator could possibly be found, who could do any mischief 
in speaking, and injure him whom he had to defend. For he 
judges from himself; as his force of intellect is such, that he 
thinks no man speaks what makes against himself, unless on 
purpose; but I am not alluding to any supereminent and 
illustrious power, but to common and almost universal sense. 
Amongst the Greeks, Themistocles the Athenian is reported 
to have possessed an incredible compass of understanding and 
genius ; and a certain person of learning and singular accom- 
plishments is said to have gone to him, and offered to teach 
him the art of memory, an art then first made public. When he 
inquired what that art could do for him, the professor replied, 
that it would enable him to remember everything; when 
Themistocles rejoined, that he would oblige him much more 
if he could instruct him how to forget, rather than to remem- 
ber, what he chose. Do you conceive what force and vigour 
of genius, how powerful and extensive a capacity, there was in 
that great man ? who answered in such a manner that we may 
understand that nothing, which had once entered his mind, 
could ever slip out of it ; and to whom it was much more 
desirable to be enabled to forget what he did not wish to 
remember, than to remember whatever he had once heard or 
seen. But neither on account of this answer of Themistocles 
are we to forbear to cultivate our memory ; nor is my pre- 
caution and timidity in pleading causes to be slighted on 
account of the excellent understanding of Crassus ; for neither 
the one nor the other of them has given me any additional 
ability, but has merely signified his own. There are numbers 
of points^ in causes that call for circumspection in every part 

^ Antonius mentions seven ways by which the indiscretion of the 
orator may be of prejudice to the cause, to illustrate his last observa- 
tion : — 1. By irritating a witness, who would not have injured his client 
without provocation. 2. By not giving way when the arguments press 
too hard upon him, he may lose his cause. 3. By extolling those qua- 
lities in his client which ought to be extenuated, he may do mischief. 
4. By throwing invectives upon those who are entitled to the esteem 



312 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. 11. 

of your speech, that you may not stumble, that you may not 
fall over anything. Oftentimes some witness either does no 
mischief, or does less, if he be not provoked; my client 
entreats me, the advocates press me, to inveigh against him, 
to abuse him, or, finally, to plague him with questions ; I am 
not moved, I do not comply, I will not gratify them ; yet 
y I gain no commendations ; for ignorant people can more easily 
T blame what you say injudiciously, than praise you for what you 
Ndiscreetly leave unnoticed. In such a case how much harm 
may be done if you offend a witness who is passionate, or one 
who is a man of sense, or of influential character 1 for he has 
the will to do you mischief from his passion, the power in his 
understanding, and the means in his reputation; nor, if 
Crassus never commits this offence, is that a reason that 
many are not guilty of it, and often ; on which account nothing 
ever appears to me more ignominious, than when from any 
observation, or reply, or question, of a pleader, such remarks 
as this follow: He has ruined — Whom? his adversary? iVb 
trul]/, hut himself and his client. 

LXXY. " This Crassus thinks can never happen but 
through perfidiousness; but I very frequently observe that 
persons by no means dishonest do mischief in causes. In 
regard to that particular which I mentioned before, that I am 
used to retreat, or, to speak more plainly, to flee from those 
points which would press hard on my side of the question, 
how much harm do others do when they neglect this, saunter 
in the enemy's camp, and dismiss their own guards 1 Do they 
occasion but slight detriment to their causes, when they either 
strengthen the supports of their adversaries or inflame the 
w^ounds which they cannot heal 1 What harm do they 
cause when they pay no regard to the characters of those 
whom they defend ] If they do not mitigate by extenuation 

and favour of the judges. 5. By upbraiding his adversary with the same 
defects that are in some of the judges ; of which Philip's derision of a 
dwarfish evidence, before Lucius Aurifex, who was still lower in stature, 
was an instance mencioned before. 6. He may plead his own cause 
rather than that of his client ; which blame Cicero seems to have in- 
curred in his oration for Publius Sextius, a cause in which he was warmly 
and specially interested. Whoever has any inclination to read the 
, history of that trial, may find it in Dr. Middleton's Life of -Cicero, 
vol. ii. p. 45, &c. 7. By the use of false or repugnant arguments, or such 
as are foreign to the usage of the bar and judicial proceedings. B, 



C. LXXVI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 313 

those qualities in them that excite ill-will, but make them 
more obnoxous to it by commending and extolling them, how 
much mischief is caused by such management ? Or what if, 
without any precautionary language, you throw bitter and 
contumelious invectives upon popular persons, in favour with 
the judges, do you not alienate their feelings from you? 
Or what if there be vices or bad qualities in one or more of the 
judges, and you, in upbraiding your adversaries with such 
demerits, are not aware that you are attacking the judges, is 
it a small error which you then commit ? Or what if, while 
you are speaking for another, you make his cause your own, or, 
taking affront, are carried away from the question by passion, 
and start aside from the subject, do you occasion no harm? 
In this respect I am esteemed too patient and forbearing, not 
because I willingly hear myself abused, but because I am un- 
willing to lose sight of the cause ; as, for instance, when I 
reproved you yourself, Sulpicius, for attacking an agent, not 
me your adversary.^ From such conduct, however, I acquire 
this advantage, that if any one does abuse me, he is thought 
to be either ill-tempered or out of his wits. Or if in your 
arguments you shall state anything either manifestly false, or 
contradictory to what you have said or are going to say, or 
foreign in its nature to the practice of trials and of the forum, 
do you occasion no damage to your cause? Why need I say 
more on this head? My whole care is constantly devoted to 
this object, (for I will repeat it frequently,) to effect, if I can, 
some good by speaking ; but if not, to do at least no harm. 

LXXVI. " I now return therefore to that point, Catulus, 
on which you a little while ago accorded me praise ; the order 
and arrangement of facts and topics of argument. On this 
head, two methods may be observed; one, which the nature 
of causes dictates; the other, which is suggested by the 
orator's judgment and prudence. For, to premise something 
before we come to the main point ; then to explain the 
matter in question; then to support it by strengthening our 
own arguments, and refuting those on the other side ; next, to 

^ Quod ministratorem peteres, non adversarium. The ministrator was 
a witness, from whose evidence Antonius had drawn arguments. 
Ellendt. Whether by adversariiis is meant Antonius or not, is, as 
Henrichsen says, uncertain. Ellendt thinks that Antonius is nut 
meant. I have however differed from him, as the context seems to 
indicate that Antonius is meant. 



314 DE ORATOREj OR, [b. II. 

8um up, and come to the peroration ; is a mode of speaking 
that nature herself prescribes. But to determine how we 
should arrange the particulars that are to be advanced in 
order to prove, to inform, to persuade, more peculiarly belongs 
to the orator's discretion. For many arguments occur to 
him ; many, that seem likely to be of service to his pleading ; 
but some of them are so trifling as to be utterly contemptible ; 
some, if they are of any assistance at all, are sometimes of 
such a nature, that there is some defect inherent in them; 
while that which appears to be advantageous, is not of such 
import that it need be advanced in conjunction with anything 
prejudicial. And as to those arguments which are to the 
purpose, and deserving of trust, if they are (as it often 
happens) very numerous, I think that such of them as are of 
least weight, or as are of the same tendency with others 
of greater force, ought to be set aside, and excluded altogether 
from our pleading. I myself, indeed, in collecting proofs, 
make it a practice rather to weigh than to count them. 

LXXYII. " Since, too, as I have often observed, we bring 
over people in general to our opinions by three methods, 
by instructing their understandings, conciliating their bene^ 
volence, or exciting their passions, one only of these three 
methods is to be professed by us, so that we may appear to 
desire nothing else but to instruct ; the other two, like blood 
throughout the body, ought to be diffused through the whole 
of our pleading ; for both the beginning, and the other parts 
of a speech, on which we will by-and-by say a few words, 
ought to have this power in a great degree, so that they may 
penetrate the minds of those before w^hom we plead, in order to 
excite them. But in those parts of the speech which, though 
they do not convince by argument, yet by solicitation and 
excitement produce great effect, though their proper place is 
chiefly in the exordium and the peroration, still, to make a 
digression from, what you have proposed and are discussing, 
for the sake of exciting the passions, is often advantageous. 
Since, after the statement of the case has been made, an oppor- 
tunity often presents itself of making a digression to rouse 
the feelings of the audience ; or this may be properly done 
after the confirmation of our own arguments, or the refutation 
of those on the other side, or in either place, or in all, if the 
cause has sufficient copiousness and importance ; and those 



C. LXXVni.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 315 

causes are the most considerable, and most pregnant with 
matter for amplification and embellishment, which afford the 
most frequent opportunities for that kind of digression in which 
you may descant on those points by which the passions of the 
audience are either excited or calmed. In touching on this 
matter, I cannot but blame those who place the arguments 
to which they trust least in the jBront; and, in like manner, 
I think that they commit an error, who, if ever they employ 
several advocates, (a practice which never had my approba- 
tion,) will have him to speak first in whom they confide least, 
and rank the others also according to their abilities.^ For 
a cause requires that the expectations of the audience should 
be met with all possible expedition ; and if nothing to satisfy 
thetn be offered in the commencement, much more labour is 
necessary in the sequel ; for that case is in a bad condition 
which does not at the commencement of the pleading at once 
appear to be the better. For this reason, as, in regard to 
pleaders,^ he who is the most able should speak first, so in 
regard to a speech, let the arguments of most weight be put 
foremost ; yet so that this rule be observed with respect to 
both, that some of superior efficiency be reserved for the 
peroration ; if any are but of moderate strength, (for to the 
weak no place should be given at all,) they may be thrown 
into the main body and into the midst of the group. All 
these things being duly considered, it is then my custom 
to think last of that which is to be spoken first, namely, 
what exordium I shall adopt. For whenever I have felt 
inclined to think of that first, nothing occurs to me but what 
is jejune, or nugatory, or vulgar and ordinary. 

LXXVIII. '' The beginnings of speeches ought always to 
be accurate and judicious, well furnished with thoughts, and 
happy in expression, as well as peculiarly suited to their 
respective causes. For our earliest acquaintance with a 
speech as it were, and the first recommendation of it to our 
notice, is at the commencement; which ought at once to 
propitiate and attract the audience. In regard to this point, 

^ Ut in quoque eorum minimum putant esse, ita eum primum volv/nt 
dicere. " As in each of them they think that there is least, so they 
wish him to speak first." 

2 Ut in orator e. Schutz conjectures in orator thus, but he had better, 
as Ell-endt observes, have conjectured ex oratoribus. But the text may 
be correct. 



316 DE oratoke; or, [b. ii. 

I cannot but feel astonished, not indeed at such as have 
paid no attention to the art, but at a man of singular elo- 
quence and erudition, I mean Philippus, who generally rises 
to speak with so little preparation, that he knows not what 
word he shall utter first; and he says, that when he has 
warmed his arm, then it is his custom to begin to fight ; but 
he does not consider that those from whom he takes this simile 
hurl their first lances gently, so as to preserve the utmost 
grace in their action, and at the same time to husband their 
strength. Nor is there any doubt, but that the beginning 
of a speech ought very seldom to be vehement and pug- 
nacious; but if even in the combat of gladiators for life, 
which is decided by the sword, many passes are made previous 
to the actual encounter, which appear to be intended, not for 
mischief, but for display, how much more naturally is such 
prelude to be expected in a speech, in which an exhibition 
of force is not more required than gratification'? Besides, 
there is nothing in the whole nature of things that is all 
produced at once, and that springs entire into being in an 
instant ; and nature herself has introduced everything that is 
done and accomplished most energetically with a moderate 
beginning. Nor is the exordium of a speech to be sought 
from without, or from anything unconnected with the sub- 
ject, but to be derived from the very essence of the cause. 
It is, therefore, after the whole cause has been considered 
and examined, and after every argument has been excogitated 
and prepared, that you must determine what sort of exordium 
to adopt; for thus it will easily be settled,^ as it will be 
drawn from those points which are most fertile in arguments, 
or in those matters on which I said^ you ought often to 
make digressions. Thus our exordia will give additional 
weight, when they are drawn from the most intimate parts 
of our defence ; and it will be shown that they are not only 
not common, and cannot be transferred to other causes, but 
that they have wholly grown out of the cause under con- 
sideration. 

LXXIX. " But every exordium ought either to convey an 
intimation. of the whole matter in hand, or some introduction 

^ Reperientur . . . sumentur. These words are plural in Orellius's text, 
but Ellendt and others seem rightly to determine that they should be 
singular. ^ c. 77. 



C. LXXIX.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 317 

knd support to the cause, or something of ornament and 
|dignity. But, like vestibules and approaches to houses and 
temples, so the introductions that we prefix to causes should 
be suited to the importance of the subjects. In small and 
unimportant^ causes, therefore, it is often more advisable to 
commence with the subject-matter itself without any preface. 
But, when we are to use an exordium, (as will generally be 
the case,) our matter for it may be derived either from the 
suitor, from the adversary, from the subject, or from those 
before whom we plead. From the suitor (I call all those 
suitors whom a suit concerns) we may deduce such par- 
ticulars as characterise a worthy, generous, or unfortunate 
man, or one deserving of compassion ; or such particulars as 
avail against a false accusation. From the adversary we may 
deduce almost the contrary particulars from the same points. 
From the subject, if the matter under consideration be cruel, 
or heinous, or beyond expectation, or undeserved, or pitiable, 
or savouring of ingratitude or indignity, or unprecedented, 
or not admitting restitution or satisfaction. Fi^om those 
before whom we plead we may draw such considerations, as 
to procure their benevolence and good opinion; an object 
better attained in the course of pleading than by direct 
entreaty. This object indeed is to be kept in view throughout 
the whole oration, and especially in the conclusion; but 
many exordia, however, are wholly based upon it; for the 
Greeks recommend us to make the judge, at the very com- 
mencement, attentive and desirous of information ; and such 
hints are useful, but not more proper for the exordium than 
for other parts; but they are indeed easier^ to be observed in 
the beginning, because the audience are then most attentive, 
when they are in expectation of the whole affair, and they 
may also, in the commencement, be more easily informed, as 
the particulars stated in the outset are generally of greater 
perspicuity than those which are spoken by way of argument, 
or refutation, in the body of the pleading. But we shall 
derive the greatest abundance and variety of matter for 
exordia, either to conciliate or to arouse the judge, from those 

^ Infrequentibus causis. Infrequens causa is a cause at the pleading 
of which few auditors are likely to attend. Ernesti. 

^ Faciliora etiam in principiis. Ellendt justly observes that ettam 
must be corrupt, and that autem should probably be substituted for it. 



318 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. II. 

points in the cause which are adapted to create emotion in 
the mind ; yet the whole of these ought not to be brought for- 
ward in the exordium; the judge should only receive a slight 
impulse at the outset, so that the rest of our speech may 
come with full force upon him when he is already impressed 
in our favour. 

LXXX. ^' Let the exordium, also, be so connected with the 
sequel of the speech, that it may not appear, like a musi- 
cian's prelude, to be something attached merely from imagina- 
tion, but a coherent member of the whole body; for some 
speakers, when they have delivered their premeditated exor- 
dium, make such a transition to what is to follow, that they 
seem positively unwilling to have an audience. But a pro- 
lusion of that kind ought not to be like that of gladiators,^ 
who brandish spears before the fight, of which they make no 
use in the encounter; but should be such, that speakers may 
even use as weapons the thoughts which they advanced in 
the prelude. 

^''But as to the directions which they give to consult 
brevity in the narration, if that is to be called brevity where 
there is no word redundant, the. language of Lucius Crassus 
is distinguished by brevity; but if that kind of brevity is 
intended, when only just so many words are used as are 
absolutely necessary, such conciseness is indeed sometimes 
proper; but it is often prejudicial, especially in narration; 
not only as it produces obscurity, but also because it destroys 
that which is the chief excellence of narration, that it be 
pleasing and adapted to persuade. For instance, the nar- 
rative. 

For he, as soon as he became of age, &c.^ 

how long is it ! The manners of the youth himself, the in- 
quiries of the servant, the death of Chrysis, the look, figure, 
and affliction of the sister, and the other circumstances, are 
told with the utmost variety and agreeableness. But if he 
had been studious of such brevity as this. 

She's carried forth ; we go ; we reach the place 
Of sepulture ; she's laid upon the pile, 

he might have comprised the whole in ten lines : although 

^ Samnitium. A kind of gladiators so called, that fought with San> 
nite arms. They had their origin among the Campanians. Liv. ix. 40. 
3 Terence, Andr. Act I. Sc. 1. 



C. LXXXI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 319 

^ She's carried forth, we go/ is only so far concise, as to con- 
sult, not absolute brevity, but elegance; for if there had 
been nothing expressed but ' she's laid upon the pile,' the 
whole matter would have been easily comprehended. But 
a narration referring to various characters, and intersected by 
dialogue, affords much gratification ; and that becomes more 
probable which you report to have been done, when you 
describe the manner in which it was done; and it is much 
more clearly understood if you sometimes pause for that 
purpose, and do not hurry over it with affected brevity. 
For the narrative parts of a speech, as well as the other parts, 
ought to be perspicuous, and we ought to take the more 
pains with that part, because it is more difficult not to be 
obscure in stating a case, than either in an exordium, in argu- 
mentation, in refuting of an accusation, or in a peroration: 
and obscurity in this part of a speech is attended with greater 
danger than in other parts; both because, if anything be 
obscurely expressed in any other part, only that is lost which 
is so expressed; but obscurity in the narrative part spreads 
darkness over the whole speech ; and because, as to other 
parts, if you have expressed anything obscurely in one place, 
you may explain it more clearly in another ; while for the 
narrative part of a speech there is but one place. But your 
narrative will be clear, if it be given in ordinary language, 
with adherence to the order of time and without interruption. 

LXXXI. " But when we ought to introduce a statement of 
facts, and when we ought not, requires judicious consideration. 
For we ought to make no such statement, either if the matter 
is notorious, or if the circumstances are free from doubt, or 
if the adversary has related them, unless indeed we wish to 
confute his statement; and whenever we do make a statement 
of facts, let us not insist too eagerly upon points which may 
create suspicion and ill-feeling, and make against us, but let 
us extenuate such points as much as possible ; lest that should 
happen, which, whenever it occurs, Crassus thinks is done 
through treachery, not through folly, namely, that we damage 
our own cause; for it concerns the fortune of the whole 
cause, whether the case is stated with caution, or otherwise, 
because the statement of the case is the foundation of all the 
rest of the speech. 

" What follows is, that the matter in question be laid 



S50 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. II. 

down, when we must settle what is the point that comes under 
dispute ; then the chief grounds of the cause are to be laid 
down conjunctively, so as to weaken your adversary's sup- 
ports, and to strengthen your own ; for there is in causes but 
one method for that part of your speech, which is of efficacy 
to prove your arguments; and that needs both confirmation 
and refutation ; but because what is alleged on the other side 
cannot be refuted unless you confirm your own statements, 
and your own statements cannot be confirmed unless you 
refute the allegations on the opposite side, these matters are 
in consequence united both by their nature, by their object, 
and by their mode of treatment. The whole speech is then 
generally brought to a conclusion by some amplification on 
the different points, or by exciting or mollifying the judge; 
and every particular, not only in the former parts of the 
speech, but more especially towards the conclusion, is to be 
adapted to excite as much as possible the feelings of the 
judges, and to incline them in our favour. 

" Nor does there now appear to be any reason, indeed, why 
we should make a distinct head of those precepts which are 
given concerning suasory or panegyrical speeches; for most 
of them are common to all kinds of oratory ; yet, to speak in 
favour of any important matter, or against it, seems to me to 
belong only to the most dignified character; for it is the part 
of a wise man to deliver his opinion on momentous afiPairs, 
and that of a man of integrity and eloquence, to be* able to 
provide for others by his prudence, to confirm by his autho- 
rity, and to persuade by his language. 

LXXXII. '^ Speeches are to be made in the senate with less 
display ; for it is an assembly of wise men ; ^ and opportunity 
is to be left for many others to speak. All suspicion, too, of 
ostentation of ability is to be avoided. A speech to the 
people, on the other hand, requires all the force, weight, and 
various colouring of eloquence. For persuading, then, nothing 
is more desirable than worth; for he who thinks that expe- 
diency is more desirable, does not consider what the counsellor 
chiefly wishes, but what he prefers upon occasion to follow; 
and there is no man, especially in so noble a state as this, 
who does not think that worth ought chiefly to be regarded; 

^ Samens enim est consilium. These words I regard as a scholium 
that has crept into the text. Ernesti, 



C. LXXXIII.] ON THE CHAEACTER OF THE ORATOR. 321 

but expediency commonly prevails, there being a concealed 
fear, that even worth cannot be supported if expediency be dis- 
regarded. But the difference between the opinions of men lies 
either in this question, ' which of two things is of the greater 
utility?' or, if that point is agreed, it is disputed * whether 
honour or expediency ought rather to be consulted.' As 
these seem often to oppose each other, he who is an advocate 
for expediency, will enumerate the benefits of peace, of plenty, 
of power, of riches, of settled revenues, of troops in garrison, 
and of other things, the enjoyment of which we estimate by 
• their utility ; and he will specify the disadvantages of a con- 
trary state of things. He who exhorts his audience to regard 
honour, will collect examples from our ancestors, which may 
be imitated with glory, though attended with danger ; he will 
expatiate on immortal fame among posterity; he will main- 
tain that advantage arises from the observance of honour, 
and that it is always united with worth. But what is pos- 
sible, or impossible ; and what is necessary or unnecessary, 
are questions of the greatest moment in regard to both; for 
all debate is at an end, if it is understood that a thing is 
impossible, or if any necessity for it appears; and he who 
shows what the case is, when others have overlooked it, 
sees furthest of all. But for giviug counsel in civil affairs 
the chief qualification is a knowledge of the constitution; 
and, to speak on such matters so as to be approved, an ac- 
j quaintance with the manners of the people is required ; and, 
j as these frequently vary, the fashion of speaking must often 
' be varied ; and, although the power of eloquence is mostly 
the same, yet, as the highest dignity is in the people, as 
the concerns of the republic are of the utmost importance, 
{ and as the commotions of the multitude are of extraordinary 
violence, a more grand and imposing manner of addressing 
them seems necessary to be adopted; and the greatest part 
of a speech is to be devoted to the excitement of the feelings, 
' either by exhortation, or the commemoration of some illus- 
I trious action, or by moving the people to hope, or to fear, or 
I to ambition, or desire of glory; and often also to dissuade 
them from temerity, from rage, from ardent expectation, 
from injustice, from envy, from cruelty. 

LXXXIII. " But it happens that, because a popular as- 
sembly appears to the orator to be his most enlarged scene of 

Y 



322 DE ORATOEBj OR, [b. II. 

action/ he is naturally excited in it to a more magnificent 
species of eloquence ; for a multitude has such influence, that, 
as the flute-player cannot play without his flutes, so the orator 
cannot be eloquent without a numerous audience. And, as 
the inclinations of popular assemblies take many and various 
turns, an unfavourable expression of feeling from the whole 
people must not be incurred ; an expression which may be 
excited by some fault in the speech, if anything appears to 
have been spoken with harshness, with arrogance, in a base 
or mean manner, or with any improper feeling whatever; or 
it may proceed from some offence taken, or ill-will conceived, 
at some particular individuals, which is either just, or arising 
from some calumny or bad report ; or it may happen if the 
subject be displeasing; or if the multitude be swayed by any 
impulse from their own hopes or fears. To those four causes 
as many remedies may be applied: the severity of rebuke, if 
you have sufficient authority for it; admonition, which is a 
milder kind of rebuke ; an assurance, that if they will give 
you a hearing, they will approve what you say ; and entreaty, 
which is the most condescending method, but sometimes very 
advantageous. But on no occasion is facetiousness and ready 
wit ^ of more effect, and any smart saying that is consistent 
with dignity and true jocularity; for nothing is so easily 
diverted from gloom, and often from rancour, as a multitude, 
even by a single expression uttered opportunely, quickly, 
smartly, and with good humour. 

LXXXI V. " I have now stated to you generally, to the 
best of my abilities, what it is my practice, in both kinds of 
causes, to pursue, what to avoid, what to keep in view, and to 
what method I ordinarily adhere in my pleadings. Nor is 
that third kind, panegyric, which I in the commencement 
excluded, as it were, from my rules, attended with any dijBB.- 
culty ; but it was because there are many departments of ora- 
tory both of greater importance and power, concerning which 
hardly any author has given particular rules, and because we 
of this country are not accustomed to deal much in panegyric, 

^ Quia maxima quasi oratoH scena videiur concionis. " Because the 
Sfreatesfc stage, as it were, for an orator, appears [tp be that] of a public 



2 Celeritas. The same word is used in c. 6-k : hoc quod in celeritatt 
atque dicto est. Schutz conjectured hilaritas. 



C. LXXXIV.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 323 

that I set this topic entirely apart. For the Greek authors 
themselves, who are the most worthy of being read, wrote their 
I panegyrics either for amusement, or to compliment some par- 
ticular person, rather than with any desire to promote forensic 
eloquence; and books of their composition are extant, in 
which ThemistocleSj Aristides, Agesilaus, Epaminondas, Philip, 
Alexander, and others, are the subjects of praise. Our lauda- 
tory speeches, which we deliver in the forum, have either the 
simple and unadorned brevity of testimony, or are written as 
funeral orations, which are by no means suitable for the pomp 
of panegyric. But as we must sometimes attempt that de- 
partment, and must occasionally write panegyrics, as Caius 
Lselius wrote one for Publius Tubero, when he wished to 
praise his uncle Africanus, and in order that we ourselves 
may be enabled to praise, after the manner of the Greeks, 
such persons as we may be inclined to praise, let that subject 
al&o form part of our discourse. It is clear, then, that some 
qualities in mankind are desirable, and some praiseworthy. 
. Firth, beauty, strength, power, riches, and other things which 
fortune bestows, either amid external circumstances, or as 
, personal endowments, carry with them no real praise, which 
is thought to be due to virtue alone ; but, as virtue itself be- 
comes chiefly conspicuous in the use and management of 
: such things, these endowments of nature and of fortune are 
I also to be considered in panegyrics ; in which it is mentioned 
! as the highest praise for a person not to have been haughty 
in power, or insolent in wealth, or to have assumed a pre- 
I eminence over others from the abundance of the blessings of 
I fortune ; so that his riches and plenty seem to have afforded\ 
; means and opportunities, not for the indulgence of pride and 
. vicious appetites, but for the cultivation of goodness and 
moderation. Virtue, too, which is of itself praiseworthy, 
and without which nothing can be deserving of praise, is dis- 
tinguished, however, into several species, some of which are 
more adapted to panegyric than others; for there are some 
virtues which are conspicuous in the manners of men, and 
consist in some degree m affability and beneficence ; and there 
are others which depend on some peculiar natural genius, or 
superior greatness and strength of mind. Clemency, justice, 
benignity, fidelity, fortitude in common dangers, ai-e subjects 
agreef»ble to the audience in panegvric ; (for all such virtues 

y2 



324 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. II. 

are thought beneficial, not so much to the persons who possess 
them, as to mankind in general;) while wisdom, and that 
greatness of soul by which all human affairs are regarded as 
mean and inconsiderable, eminent power of thought, and elo- 
quence itself, excite indeed no less admiration, but not equal 
dehght; for they appear to be an ornament and support 
rather to the persons themselves whom we commend, than to 
those before whom we commend them; yet, in panegyric, 
these two kinds of virtues must be united; for the ears of 
men tolerate the praises not only of those parts of virtue 
which are delightful and agreeable, but of those which excite 
admiration. 

LXXXY. '^ Since, also, there are certain offices and duties 
belonging to every kind of virtue, and since to each virtue its 
peculfar praise is due, it will be necessary to specify, in a 
panegyric on justice, what he who is praised performed with 
fidelity, or equanimity, or in accordance with any other moral 
duty. In other points, too, the praise of actions must be 
adapted to the nature, power, and name of the virtue under 
which they fall. The praise of those acts is heard with 
the greatest pleasure,' which appear to have been undertaken 
by men of spirit, without advantage or reward; but those 
which have been also attended with toil and danger to them- 
selves afford the largest scope for panegyric, because they 
may be set forth with the greatest ornaments of eloquence, 
and the account of them may be heard with the utmost satis- 
faction; for that appears the highest virtue in a man of 
eminence, which is beneficial to others, but attended with 
danger or toil, or at least without advantage, to himself. It 
is commonly regarded, too, as a great and admirable merit, 
to have borne adversity with wisdom, not to have been van- 
quished by fortune, and to have maintained dignity in the 
worst of circumstances. It is also an honour to a man that 
distinctions have been bestowed upon him, rewards decreed 
to his merit, and that his achievements have been approved 
by the judgment of mankind; and, on such subjects, to attri- 
bute success itself to the judgment of the immortal gods, is 
a part of panegyric. But such actions should be selected for 
praise as are either of extraordinary greatness, or unprece- 
dented novelty, or singular in their kind; for such as are 
trivial, or common, or ordinary, generally appear to deserve 



C. LXXXVI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 325 

no admiration or even commendation. A comparison also 
with other great men has a noble effect in panegyric. 

" On this species of eloquence I have felt inclined to say 
something more than I had proposed, not so much for the 
improvement of pleading in the forum, which has been kept 
in view by me through this whole discourse, as that you 
might see that, if panegyric be a part of the orator's business, 
— and nobody denies that it is, — a knowledge of all the virtues, 
without which panegyric cannot be composed, is necessary to 
the orator. As to the rules for censuring, it is clear that 
they are to be deduced from the vices contrary to these vir- 
tues; and it is also obvious, that neither can a good man be 
praised with propriety and copiousness of matter, without 
a knowledge of the several virtues, nor a bad man be stigma- 
tized and branded with sufficient distinction and asperity, ^ 
without a knowledge of the opposite vices. On these topics/' 
of panegyric and satire we must often touch in all kinds 
of causes. 

" You have now heard what I think about the invention 
and arrangement of matter. I shall add some observations 
on memory, with a view to lighten the labour of Crassus, and 
to leave nothing for him to discuss, but the art of embellish- 
ing those departments of eloquence which I have specified." 

LXXXVI. " Proceed," said Crassus ; " for I feel pleasure in 
seeing you appear as a professed artist, stripped of the disguises 
of dissimulation, and fairly exposed to view ; and, in leaving 
nothing for me to do or but little, you consult my con- 
venience, and confer a favour upon me." " How much I leave 
you to do," said Antonius, " will be in your own power; for 
if you are inclined to act fairly, I leave you everything to do ; 
but if you wish to shrink from any portion of your under- 
taking, you must consider how you can give this company 
satisfaction. But to return to the point ; I am not," he con- 
tinued, '^ possessed of such intellectual power as Themistocles 
had, that I had rather know the art of forgetfulness than that 
of memory; and I am grateful to the famous Simonides of 
Ceos, who, as people say, first invented an art of memory. 
For they relate, that when Simonides was at Crannon in 
Thessaly, at an entertainment given by Scopas, a man of 
rank and fortune, and had recited a poem which he had com- 
posed in his praise, in which, for the sake of embellishment. 



S26 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. IT. 

after the manner of the poets, there were many particulai s 
introduced concerning Castor and Pollux, Scopas told Si- 
monides, with extraordinary meanness, that he would pay 
him half the sum which he had agreed to give for the poem, 
and that he might ask the remainder, if he thought proper, 
from his Tyndaridae, to whom he had given an equal share of 
praise. A short time after, they say that a message was 
brought in to Simonides, to desire him to go out, as two 
youths were waiting at the gate who earnestly wished him to 
come forth to them; when he arose, went forth, and found 
nobody. In the meantime the apartment in which Scopas 
was feasting fell down, and he himself, and his company, were 
overwhelmed and buried in the ruins ; and when their friends 
were desirous to inter their remains, but could not possibly 
distinguish one from another, so much crushed were the 
bodies, Simonides is said, from his recollection of the place in 
which each had sat, to have given satisfactory directions for 
their interment. Admonished by this occurrence, he is re- 
ported to have discovered, that it is chiefly order that gives 
distinctness to memory; and that by those, therefore, who 
would improve this part of the understanding, certain places 
must be fixed upon, and that of the things which they desire 
to keep in memory, symbols must be conceived in the mind, 
and ranged, as it were, in those places ; thus the order of places 
would preserve the order of things, and the symbols of the 
things would denote the things themselves ; so that we should 
use the places as waxen tablets, and the symbols as letters. 

LXXXYII. " How great the benefit of memory is to the 
orator, how great the advantage, how great the power, what 
need is there for me to observe ? Why should I remark how ex- 
cellent a thing it is to retain the instructions which you have 
received with the cause, and the opinion which you have 
formed upon it? to keep all your thoughts upon it fixed 
in your mind, all your arrangement of language marked out 
there '? to listen to him from whom you receive any informa- 
tion, or to him to whom you have to reply, with such power 
of retention, that they seem not to have poured their dis- 
course into your ears, but to have engraven it on your mental 
tablet ? They alone, accordingly, who have a vigorous memory, 
know what, and how much, and in what manner they are 
about to speak ; to what they have replied, and what remains 



C. LXXXVII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 327 

unanswered ; and they also remember many courses that they 
have formerly adopted in other cases, and many which they 
have heard from others. I must, however, acknowledge that 
nature is the chief author of this qualification, as of all those 
of which I have previously spoken; (but this whole art of 
oratory, or image and resemblance of an art, has the power, 
not of engendering and producing anything entirely of itself, 
of which no part previously existed in our understandings, 
but of being able to give education and strength to what has 
been generated, and has had its birth there;) yet there is 
scarcely any one of so strong a memory as to retain the order 
of his language and thoughts without a previous arrangement 
- and observation of heads ; nor is any one of so weak a 
memory as not to receive assistance from this practice and 
exercise. For Simonides, or whoever else invented the art, 
wisely saw, that those things are the most strongly fixed in 
our minds, which are communicated to them, and imprinted 
upon them, by the senses ; that of all the senses that of seeing 
is the most acute ; and that, accordingly, those things are most 
easily retained in our minds which we have received from the 
hearing or the understanding, if they are also recommended 
to the imagination by means of the mental eye ; so that a 
kind of form, resemblance, and representation might denote 
invisible objects, and such as are in their nature withdrawn 
from the cognisance of the sight, in such a manner, that what 
we are scarcely capable of comprehending by thought we may 
retain as it were by the aid of the visual faculty. By these 
imaginary forms and objects, as by all those that come under 
OUT corporeal vision, our memory is admonished and excited ; 
but some place for them must be imagined ; as bodily shape 
cannot be conceived without a place for it. That I may not, 
then, be prolix and impertinent upon so well-known and 
common a subject, we must fancy many plain distinct places, 
at moderate distances; and such symbols as are impressive, 
striking, and well-marked, so that they may present them- 
selves to the mind, and act upon it with the greatest quickness. 
This faculty of artificial memory practice will affurd, (from 
which proceeds habit,) as well as the derivation of similar 
vords converted and altered in cases, or transferred from 
particulars to generals, and the idea of an entire sentence from 
the symbol of a single word, after the manner and method of 



328 DE OKATORE ; OR, [b. II. 

any skilful painter, who distinguishes spaces by the variety of 
what he depicts. 

LXXXYIII. " But the memory of words, which, however, 
is less necessary for us,^ is to be distinguished by a greater 
variety of symbols; for there are many words which, like 
joints, connect the members of our speech, that cannot 
possibly be represented by anything similar to them ; and for 
these we must invent symbols that we may invariably use. 
The memory of things is the proper business of the orator; 
this we may be enabled to impress on ourselves by the creation 
of imaginary figures, aptly arranged, to represent particular 
heads, so that we may recollect thoughts by images, and their 
order by place. Nor is that true which is said by people un- 
skilled in this artifice, that the memory is oppressed by the 
weight of these representations, and that even obscured which 
unassisted nature might have clearly kept in view ; for I have 
seen men of consummate abilities, and an almost divine faculty 
of memory, as Charmadas at Athens, and Scepsius Metrodorus 
in Asia, who is said to be still living, each of whom used to 
say that, as he wrote with letters on wax, so he wrote with 
symbols as it were, whatever he wished to remember, on 
these places which he had conceived in imagination. Though, 
therefore, a memory cannot be entirely formed by this prac- 
tice, if there is none given by nature ; yet certainly, if there 
is latent natural faculty, it may be called forth. 

" You have now had a very long dissertation from a person 
whom I wish you may not esteem impudent, but who is cer- 
tainly not over-modest, in having spoken, so copiously as 
I have done, upon the art of eloquence, in your hearing, 
Catulus, and that of Lucius Crassus; for of the rest of the 
company the age might perhaps reasonably make less impres- 
sion upon me ; but you will certainly excuse me, if you but 
listen to the motive which impelled me to loquacity so 
unusual with me." 

LXXXIX. ^' We indeed," said Catulus, " (for I make this 
answer for my brother and myself,) not only excuse you, but 
feel love and great gratitude to you for what you have done ; 
and, as we acknowledge your pcliteness and good-nature, so we 
admire your learning and copious store of matter. Indeed I 

^ Because words are at the command of the practised orator, and, 
when matter is supplied, easily occur. Ernesti, 



C. LXXXIX.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 329 

think that I have reaped this benefit, that I am freed from a 
great mistake, and relieved from that astonishment which I 
used always to feel, in common with many others, as to the 
source from which that divine power of yours in pleading was 
derived; for I never imagined that you had even slightly 
touched upon those matters, of which I now perceive that you 
possess an exact knowledge, gathered from all quarters, and 
which, taught by experience, you have partly coiTCcted and 
partly approved. Nor have I now a less high opinion of your 
eloquence, while I have a far higher one of your general merit 
and diligence ; and I am pleased, at the same time, that my 
own judgment is confinned, inasmuch as I always laid it 
down as a maxim, that no man can attain a character for 
wisdom and eloquence without the greatest study, industry, 
and learning. But what was it that you meant, when you 
said that we should excuse you if we knew the motive which 
had impelled you to this discoui'se'? What other motive 
could there be but your inclination to oblige us, and to satisfy 
the desire of these young gentlemen, who have listened to you 
with the utmost attention ? " 

" I was desirous," replied Antonius, " to take away from 
Crassus every pretence for refusal, who would, I was sure, 
engage in such a kind of dissertation either a little too 
modestly, or too reluctantly, for I would not apply the word 
disdainfully to a man of his affability. But what excuse will 
he now be able to make 1 That he is a person of consular and 
censorial dignity 1 I might have made the same excuse. 
Will he plead his age 1 He is four years younger than I. 
Can he say that he is ignorant of these matters, of which 
I indeed have snatched some knowledge late in life, cur- 
sorily, and, as people say, at spare times, while he has 
applied to them from his youth with the most diligent study, 
under the most able masters 1 I will say nothing of his genius, 
in which no man was ever his equal ; for no one that hears me 
speak, has so contemptible an opinion of himself, as not to 
hope to speak better, or at least as well; but while Crassus is 
speaking, no one is so conceited as to have the presumption 
to think that he shall ever speak like him. Lest persons, 
therefore, of so much dignity as the present company, should 
have come to you in vain, let us at length, Crassus, hear you 
speak." 



330 DE OKATORE j OR, [b. II 

XC. *' If I should grant you, Antonius," replied Crassus, 
" that these things are so, which however are far otherwise, 
what have you left for me this day, or for any man, that 
he can possibly say? For I will speak, my dearest friends, 
what I really think : I have often heard men of learning, 
(why do I say often? I should rather say sometimes ; for how 
could I have that opportunity often, when I entered the 
forum quite a youth, and was never absent from it longer than 
during my quaestorship ?) but I have heard, as I said yester- 
day, both while I was at Athens, men of the greatest learning, 
and in Asia that famous rhetorician Scepsius Metrodorus, 
discoursing upon these very subjects ; but no one of them 
ever appeared to me to have engaged in such a dissertation 
with greater extent of knowledge, or greater penetration, than 
our friend has shown to-day ; but if it were otherwise, and if 
I thought anything had been omitted by Antonius, I should 
not be so unpolite, nay so almost churlish, as to think that a 
trouble which I perceived to be your desire." ^^ Have you 
then forgotten, Crassus," said Sulpicius, " that Antonius 
made such a division with you, that he should explain the 
equipment and implements of the orator, and leave it to you 
to speak of decoration and embellishment ? " " In the first 
place," rejoined Crassus, " who gave Antonius leave either to 
make such a partition, or to choose first that part which he 
liked best ? In the next, if I rightly comprehended what 
I heard with the utmost pleasure, he seemed to me to treat of 
both these matters in conjunction." " But," observed Cotta, 
" he said nothing of the embellishments of language, or on 
that excellence from which eloquence derives its very name." 
" Antonius then," said Crassus, " left me nothing but words, 
and took the substance for himself." " Well," remarked Csesar, 
" if he has left you the more difficult part, we have reason to 
desire to hear you; if that which is the easier, you have 
no reason to refuse." " And in regard to what you said, 
Crassus," interposed Catulus, *^ that if we would stay and pass 
the day with you here, you would comply with our wishes, 
do you not think it binding on your honour?" Cotta then 
smiled, and said, *^ I might, Crassus, excuse you ; but take 
care that Catulus has not made it a matter of religious 
faith ; it is a point for the censor's cognisance ; and you 
see how disgraceful it would be for a person of censorial 



C. J.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 331 

dignity^ to render himself obnoxious to such censure." " Do 
as you please, then," rephed Crassus ; " but for the present, as 
it is time, I think we must rise, and take some repose ; in the 
afternoon, if it is then agreeable to you, I will say something 
on these points, unless perchance you may wish to put me off 
till to-morrow." They all replied that they were ready to hear 
him either at once, or in the afternoon if he preferred; as 
soon however as possible. 



BOOK III. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



Cicero, in the introduction to this book, laments the sad deaths of 
Crassus and Antonius. He then proceeds to relate Crassus's further 
remarks on eloquence, and especially on style and delivery, in which 
he was thought to excel all other speakers. See Cic. de Clar. Orat. 
G. 38. He shows that an orator should speak correctly, perspicuously, 
elegantly, and to the purpose. Style is to be ornamented by a taste- 
ful choice of words, and by tropes and figures ; and it must have a 
certain rhythm or harmony. Some observations are added on action 
and delivery in general. In c. 14 a digression is made on the praises 
of eloquence, and the combination of a knowledge of philosophy, 
especially the Academic and Peripatetic, with the study of it. 

I. When I proceeded to execute my design, brother Quintus, 
of relating and committing to writing in this third book, the 
remarks which Crassus made after the dissertation of An- 
tonius, bitter remembrance renewed in my mind its former 
concern and regret; for the genius worthy of immortality, 
the learning, the virtue that were in Lucius Crassus, were all 
extinguished by sudden death, within ten days from the day 
which is comprised in this and the former book. When he 
returned to Rome on the last day of the theatrical enter- 
tainments,^ he was put into a violent emotion by that oration 
which was reported to have been delivered in an assembly of 
the people by Philippus, who, it was agreed, had declared, 
" that he must look for another council, as he could not 

^ A man who has been censor, as you have been. Proust, 
^ Which accompanied the pubhc games. Compare i. 7^ 



332 DE ORATOKE ; OR, [b. III. 

carry on the government with such a senate;" and on the 
morning of the thirteenth of September, both Crassus and a 
full senate came into the house on the call of Drusus. There, 
when Drusus had made many complaints against Philippus, 
he brought formally before the senate the fact that the 
consul had thrown such grievous obloquy on that order, in 
his speech to the people. Here, as I have often heard it 
unanimously said by men of the greatest judgment, although 
indeed it continually happened to Crassus, whenever he had 
delivered a speech more exquisite than ordinary, that he was 
always thought never to have spoken better, yet by universal 
consent it was then determined, that all other orators had 
always been excelled by Crassus, but that on that day he had 
been excelled by himself; for he deplored the misfortune and 
unsupported condition of the senate; an order whose heredi- 
tary dignity was then being torn from it by a consul, as by 
some lawless ruffian, a consul whose duty it was to act the 
part of a good parent or trusty guardian towards it ; but said 
that it was not surprising, if, after he had ruined the com- 
monwealth by his own counsels, he should divorce the coun- 
sels of the senate from the commonwealth. When he had 
applied these expressions, which were like firebrands, to Phi- 
lippus, who was a man of violence, as well as of eloquence, 
and of the utmost vigour to resist opposition, he could not 
restrain himself, but burst forth into a furious flame, and 
resolved to bind Crassus to good behaviour, by forfeiting his 
securities.^ On that occasion, many things are reported to 
have been uttered by Crassus with a sort of divine sublimity, 
refusing to acknowledge as a consul him who would not allow 
him to possess the senatorial dignity : Do you, said he, who, 
when you thought the general authority of the whole senatorial 
order entrusted to you as a pledge, yet perfidiously anmdled it 
in the view of the Roman people, imagine that I can he terrified 
hy such petty forfeitures as those ? It is not such pledges that 
are to he forfeited, if you would bind Lucius Crassus to silence; 
for that purpose you must cut out this tongue; and even if it 

^ Pignorihus ablatis. The senators and otliers were obliged to attend 

the senate when they were summoned, and to be submissive to the 

- superior magistrates, or they might be punished by fine and distraint 

of their property. See Livy, iii. 38 ; xliii. 16; Plin. Ep. iv. 29; Cic 

Phil. i. 5; Suet. Jul. c. 17; Adams Koman Antiquities, p. 2. 



C II.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 333 

he torn out, the freedom in my very breath will confound your 
audacity. 

II. It appeared that a multitude of other expressions were 
then uttered by him with the most vehement efforts of mind, 
thought, and spirits; and that that resolution of his, which 
the senate adopted in a full house, was proposed by him with 
the utmost magnificence and dignity of language, That the 
counsel and fidelity of the senate had never been v)anting to 
the commonwealth, in order to do justice to the Roman people; 
and he was present (as appears from the names entered in the 
register) at the recording of the resolution. This however 
was the last swan-like note and speech of that divine orator; 
and, as if expecting to hear it again, we used, after his death, 
to go into the senate-house, that we might contemplate the 
spot on which he had last stood to speak; for we heard that 
he was seized at the time with a pain in his side while he was 
speaking, and that a copious perspiration folloAved; after 
which he was struck with a chillness, and, returning home in a 
fever, died the seventh day after of pleurisy. how fallacious 
are the hopes of mortals, how frail is our condition, and how 
insignificant all our ambitious efforts, which are often broken 
and thrown down in the middle of their course, and over- 
whelmed as it were in their voyage, even before they gain 
a sight of the harbour! For as long as the life of Crassus 
was perplexed with the toils of ambition, so long was he 
more distinguished for the performance of private duties, and 
the praises due to his genius, than for any benefit that he 
reaped from his greatness, or for the dignified rank which he 
bore in the republic ; but the first year which, after a dis- 
charge of all the honourable offices of the state, opened to 
him the entrance to supreme authority by universal consent, 
overthrew all his hopes, and all his future schemes of life, by 
death. This was a melancholy occurrence to his friends, a 
grievous calamity to his country, and a heavy affliction to all 
the virtuous part of mankind; but such misfortunes after- 
wards fell upon the commonwealth, that life does not appear 
to me to have been taken away from Lucius Crassus by 
the immortal gods as a privation, but death to have been 
bestowed on him as a blessing. He did not live to behold 
Italy blazing with war, or the senate overwhelmed with 
popular odium, or the leading men of the state accused of 



334 DE ORATORE ; OR [b. III. 

the most heinous crhnes, or the affliction of his daughter, 
or the banishment of his son-at-law/ or tiie most calami- 
tous flight of Caius Marius, or that most atrocious of all 
slaughters after his return, or, finally, that republic in every 
way disgraced, in which, while it continued most flourishing, 
he had by far the pre-eminence over all other men in glory. 

Ill, But led away as I am by my reflections to touch 
upon the power and vicissitudes of fortune, my observations 
shall not expatiate too widely, but shall be confined almost 
to the very personages who are contained in this dialogue, 
which I have begun to detail. For who would not call the 
death of Lucius Crassus, which has been so often lamented 
by multitudes, a happy one, when he calls to mind the fate 
of those very persons who were almost the last that held dis- 
course with him? For we ourselves remember, that Quintus 
Catulus, a man distinguished for almost every species ot 
merit, when he entreated, not the security of his fortunes, 
but retreat into exile, was reduced to deprive himself of life. 
It was then, too, that that illustrious head of Marcus Antonius, 
by whom the lives of so many citizens had been preserved, 
was fixed upon the very rostra on which he had so strenuously 
defended the republic when consul, and which he had adorned 
with imperial trophies when censor. Not far from his was 
exposed the head of Caius Julius, (who was betrayed by his 
Tuscan host,) with that of Lucius Julius his brother ; so that 
he who did not behold such atrocities may justly be thought 
to have prolonged his life during the existence of the consti- 
tution, and to have expired together with it. He neither 
beheld his near relation, Publius Crassus, a man of the greatest 
magnanimity, slain by his own hand, nor saw the image of 
Vesta sprinkled with the blood of the pontifex, his colleague ; 
and (such were his feelings towards his country) even the 
cruel death of Caius Carbo, his greatest enemy, that occurred 
on the same day, would have caused additional grief to him. 
He did not behold the horrible and miserable fate of those 
young men who had devoted themselves to him; of whom 
Caius Cotta, whom he had left in a promising condition, 
was expelled, through popular prejudice, from his office of 

^ His daughter Licinia was married to Publius Scipio, the grandson 
of Serap ion, who was instrumental in the death of Tiberius Gracchus 
Cic. Brut. 58. FAlendU 



C. IV.] ox THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 335 

tribune, a few days after the death of Crassus, and, not many 
months afterwards, driven from the city. And Sulpicius, who 
had been involved in the same popular fury, attempted in his 
tribuneship to spoil of all their honours those with whom, 
as a private individual, he had lived in the greatest fami- 
liarity; but w^hen he was shooting forth into the highest 
glory of eloquence, his life was taken from him by the sword, 
and punishment was inflicted on his rashness, not without 
great damage to the republic. I am indeed of opinion that 
you, Crassus, received as well your birth as your death from 
the peculiar appointment of divine providence, both on account 
of the distinction of your life and the season of your death ; 
for, in accordance with your virtue and firmness of mind, you 
must either have submitted to the cruelty of civil slaughter; 
or if any fortune had rescued you from so barbarous a death, 
the same fortune would have compelled you to be a spectator 
of the ruins of your country ; and not only the dominion of 
ill- designing men, but even the victory of the honourable 
party, w^ould, on account of the civil massacres intermingled 
with it, have been an affliction to you. 

IV. Indeed, when I reflect, brother Quintus, upon the 
calamities of these great men, (whose fates I have just men- 
tioned,) and those which we ourselves have felt and experienced 
from our extraordinary and eminent love for our country, 
year opinions appear to me to be founded on justice and 
wisdom, as you have always, on account of such numerous, 
such violent, and such sudden afflictions as have happened to 
the most illustrious and virtuous men, dissuaded me from 
all civil contention and strife. But, because we cannot put 
aflairs into the same state as if nothing had occurred, 
and because our extreme toils are compensated and miti- 
gated by great glory, let us apply ourselves to those con- 
solations, which are not only pleasant to us when troubles 
have subsided, but may also be salutary while they con- 
tinue ; let us deliver as a memorial to posterity the remain- 
ing and almost the last discourse of Lucius Crassus; and let 
us express the gratitude to him which he so justly merited, 
although in terms by no means equal to his genius, yet to 
the best of our endeavours; for there is not any of us, when 
he reads the admirably written dialogues of Plato, in almost 
all of which the character of Socrates is represented, who 



336 DE ORATOEE ; OR, [b. III. 

does not, though what is written of him is written in a diving 
spirit, conceive something still greater of him about whom ii 
is written : and it is also my request, not indeed to jou, 
my brother, who attribute to me perfection in all things, but 
to others who shall take this treatise into their hands, that 
they would entertain a nobler conception of Lucius Crassus 
than any that is expressed by me. For I, who was not 
present at this dialogue, and to whom Caius Cotta communi- 
cated only the topics and heads of the dissertation, have en- 
deavoured to shadow forth in the conversation of the speakers 
those peculiar styles of oratory, in which I knew that each of 
them was conspicuous. But if any person shall be induced 
by the common opinion, to think either that Antonius was 
more jejune, or Crassus more exuberant in style, than they 
have been respectively described by me, he will be among the 
number of those who- either never heard these great men, or 
who have not abilities to judge; for each of them was (as I 
have explained before) superior to all other speakers, in appli- 
cation, and genius, and learning, as well as excellent in his 
particular style, so that embellishment in language was not 
wanting in Antonius, nor redundant in Crassus. 

Y. As soon therefore as they had withdrawn before noon, . 
and reposed themselves a little, Cotta said that he particularly 
observed that Crassus employed all the time about the middle 
of the day in the most earnest and profound meditation ; and 
that he himself, who was well acquainted with the coimte- 
nance which he assumed whenever he was going to speak in 
public, and the nature of his looks when he was fixed in con- 
templation, and had often remarked them in causes of the 
greatest importance, came on purpose, while the rest were 
asleep, into the room in which Crassus had lain down on a 
couch prepared for him, and that, as soon as he perceived 
him to be settled in a thoughtful posture, he immediately 
retired ; and that almost two hours passed in that perfect 
stillness. Afterwards, when they all, as the day was new 
verging to the afternoon, waited upon Crassus, Caesar said, 
" Well, Crassus, shall we go and take our seats? though we 
only come to put you in mind of your promise, and not to 
demand the performance of it." Crassus then replied, '^ Do 
you imagine that I have the assurance to think that I can 
continue longer indebted to such friends as you, especially in 



-4 5.- 



C. VI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 337 

an obligation of this nature?" "What place then will suit 
you?" said Caesar; "a seat in the middle of the wood, for 
that is the most shady and cool?" "Very well/' replied 
Crassus, "for there is in that spot a seat not at all unsuited 
for this discourse of ours." This arrangement being agreeable 
to the rest of the company, they went into the wood, and sat 
down there with the most earnest desire to listen. 

Crassus then said, " Not only the influence of your autho- 
rity and friendship, but also the ready compliance of Antonius, 
have taken from me all liberty of refusal, though I had an 
excellent pretext for refusing. In the partition, however, of 
this dissertation between us, Antonius, when he assumed to 
himself the part of speaking upon those matters which form 
the subject of the orator's speech, and left to me to explain 
how they should be embellished, divided things which 
are in their nature incapable of separation; for as every 
speech consists of the matter and the language, the language 
can have no place if you take away the matter, nor the 
matter receive any illustration if you take away the lan- 
guage. Indeed, the great men of antiquity, embracing some- 
thing of superior magnificence in their ideas, appear to me to 
have seen further into the nature of things than the visual 
faculties of our minds can penetrate; as they said that all 
these things, above and below, formed one system, and were 
linked together in strict union by one and the same power, 
and one principle of universal harmony in nature ; for there 
\ is no order of things which can either of itself, if forcibly 
separated from the rest, preserve a permanent existence, or 
without which the rest can maintain their power and eternal 
duration. 

YI. " But, if this reasoning appear to be too comprehensive 
to be embraced by human sense and understanding, yet that 
saying of Plato is true, and certainly not unknown to you, 
Catulus, ' that all the leai'uing of these liberal and polite de- 
.partments of knowledge is linked together in one bond of union; 
for when the power of that reason, by which the causes and 
events of things are known, is once thoroughly discerned, a cer- 
tain wonderful gtgreement and harmony, as it were, in all the 
sciences is discovered.' But, if this also appear to be too sublime 
a thought for us to contemplate who are prostrate on the 
earth, it, however, certainly is our duty to know and remember 



338 DS ORATORE ; OR, [b. III. ! 

that which we have embraced, which we profess, which we 
have taken upon ourselves. Since eloquence, as I observed 
yesterday, and Antonius signified in some passages of his dis- 
course this morning, is one and the same, into whatever tracts 
or regions of debate it may be carried : for whether it dis- 
courses concerning the nature of the heavens or of the earth, 
— whether of divine or human power, — whether it speaks 
from a lower, or an equal, or a superior place, — whether to 
impel an audience, or to instruct, or to deter, or to incite, or 
to dissuade, or to inflame, or to soothe, — whether to a small i 
or to a large assembly, — whether to strangers, to friends, or \ 
alone, — its language is derived through different channels, 
not from different sources ; and, wherever it directs its course, 
it is attended with the same equipment and decoration. But 
since we are overwhelmed by opinions, not only those of the 
vulgar, but those also of men imperfectly instructed, who 
treat of those things more easily when divided and torn 
asunder which they have not capacity to comprehend in 
a general view, and who sever the language from the thoughts 
like the body from the soul, neither of which separations 
can be made without destruction, I will not undertake in 
this discourse more than that which is imposed upon me; 
I will only signify briefly, that neither can embellishments of 
language be found without arrangement and expression of 
thoughts, nor can thoughts be made to shine without the 
light of language. But before I proceed to touch upon those 
particulars by which I think language is beautified and 
illumined, I will state briefly what I think concerning elo- 
quence in general. 

yil. " There is no one of the natural senses, in my 
opinion, which does not include under its general compre- 
hension many things dissimilar one to another, but which are 
still thought deserving of similar approbation; for we both 
perceive many things by the ear, which, although they all 
charm us with their sounds, are yet often so various in them- 
selves, that that which we hear last appears to be the most 
delightful; and almost innumerable pleasures are received 
by the eye, which all captivate us in such a manner as to 
delight the same sense in different ways; and pleasures 
that bear no sort of resemblance to each other charm the 
rest of the senses in such a manner that it is difficult to ^ 



C. VIII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 339 

determine which affords the most exquisite enjoyment. But 
the same observation which is to be made in regard to nature 
may be appUed also to the different kinds of art. Sculpture 
is a single art, in which Myro, Polycletus, and Lysippus 
excelled ; all of whom differed one from another, but so that 
you would not wish any one of them to be unlike himself 
The art and science of painting is one^ yet Zeuxis^ Aglaophon, 
and Apelles are quite unlike one another in themselves, 
though to none of them does anything seem wanting in his 
peculiar style. And if this be wonderful, and yet true, in 
these, as it were, mute arts, how much more wonderful is it 
in language and speech ? w^hich, though employed about the 
same thoughts and words, yet admits of the greatest varia- 
tions; and not so that some speakers are to be censured and 
others commended, but that those who are allowed to merit 
praise, merit it for different excellences. This is fully exem- 
plified in poets, who have the nearest affinity to orators : how 
distinct from each other are Ennius, Pacuvius, and Accius; 
how distinct, among the Greeks, ^^schylus, Sophocles, and 
Euripides; though almost equal praise may be attributed 
to them all in different kinds of writing. Then, behold and 
contemplate those whose art is the subject of our present 

; inquiry ; what a wide distinction there is between the ac- 
complishments and natural abilities of orators ! Isocrates 

j possessed sweetness, Lysias delicacy, Hyperides pointedness, 

! iEschines sound, and Demosthenes energy ; and which of 
them was not excellent ? yet which of them resembled any 
one but himself? Africanus had w^eight, Laelius smoothness, 

! Galba asperity, Carbo something of fluency and harmony; 
but which of these was not an orator of the first rank in 

, those times 1 and yet every one attained that rank by a style 

\ of oratory peculiar to himself 

' VIIL " But why should I search into antiquity for exam- 

I pies, when I can point to present and living characters 1 

: What was ever more pleasing to the ear than the language of 

I our friend Catulus ? language of such purity, that he appears 
to be almost the only orator that speaks pure Latin; and of 

1 such power, that with its peculiar dignity there is yet blended 
the utmost politeness and wit. In a word, when I hear him, I '^ 
always think that whatever you should add, or alter, or take / 

I *way, his languaire would be impaired and deteriorated. Has/ 

' ' z2 



340 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. III. 

not our friend Csesar here, too, introduced a new kind of oratory, 
and brought before us an almost peculiar style of eloquence ? 
Who has ever, besides him, treated tragical subjects in an 
almost comic manner, serious subjects with pleasantry, grave 
subjects with gaiety, and s^^bjects suited to the forum with a 
grace peculiar to the stage i in such a way ^^.at neither is the 
jocular style excluded by i-i 3 importance ot the subject, nor 
is the weight of the matter lessened by the humour with 
which it is treated. Here are present with us two young 
men, almost of equal age, Sulpicius and Cotta ; what things 
were ever so dissimilar as they are one to another? yet what 
is so excellent as they are in their respective styles ? One is 
polished and refined, explaining things with the greatest pro- 
priety and aptitude of expression; he always adheres to his 
cause, and, when he has discovered, with his keen discern- 
ment, what he ought to prove to the judge, he directs his 
whole attention and force of oratory to that point, without 
regarding other arguments; while Sulpicius has a certain 
irresistible energy of mind, a most full and powerful voice, a 
most vigorous action, and consummate dignity of motion, 
united with such weight and copiousness of language, that he j 
appears of all men the best qualified by nature for eloquence. 
IX. '^ I now return to ourselves ; (because there has ever 
been such a comparison made between us, that we are 
brought, as it were, into judgment on account of rivalship, in 
the common conv orsation of mankind;) what two things can 
be more dissimilar than Antonius's manner of speaking and 
my own *? though he is such an orator that no one can possibly 
surpass him; and I, though I am altogether dissatisfied with 
myself, am yet in preference to others admitted to a com- 
parison with him. Do you notice what the manner of Anto- 
nius is 1 It is bold, vehement, full of energy and action, 
fortified and guarded on every point of the cause, spirited, 
acute, explicit, dwelling upon every circumstance, retiring 
with honour, pursuing with eagerness, terrifying, supplicating, 
exhibiting the greatest variety of language, yet without satiety 
to the ear; but as to myself, whatever I am as a speaker 
(since I appear to you to hold some place among speakers), I 
certainly difi'er very greatly from his style. What my talents 
are it becomes not me to say, because every one is least 
known to himself, and it is extremely difficult for any person 



ex.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 341 

to form a judgment of his own capacity; but the dissimilitude 
may be easily perceived, both from the mediocrity of my 
action, and from the circumstance that I usually conclude in 
the same track in which I first set out; and that labour 
and care in choosing words causes me greater anxiety than 
choice of matter, being afraid that if my language should 
be a little obsolete, it may appear unworthy of the expecta- 
tion and silent attention of the audience. But if in us who 
are present there are such remarkable dissimilitudes, such 
decided peculiarities in each of us, and in all this variety the 
better is distinguished from the worse by difference in ability 
rather than by difference in kind, and everything is praise- 
w^orthy that is perfect in its nature, what do you imagine 
must be the case if w^e should take into consideration all the 
orators that anywhere exist, or ever existed 1 Would it not 
happen that almost as many kinds of eloquence as of orators 
would be found ? But from this observation of mine, it may 
perhaps occur to you, that if there be almost innumerable 
varieties and characters of eloquence, dissimilar in species, 
yet laudable in their kind, things of so diversified a nature 
can never be formed into an art by the same precepts and 
one single method of instruction. This is not the case ; and 
it is to be attentively considered by those who have the con- 
duct and education of others, in what direction the natural 
genius of each seems principally to incline him. For we see 
that from the same schools of artists and masters, eminent in 
their respective pursuits, there have gone forth pupils very 
unlike each other, yet all praiseworthy, because the instruc- 
tion of the teacher has been adapted to each person's natural 
genius; a fact of which the most remarkable' example (to say 
nothing of other sciences) is that saying of Isocrates, an 
eminent teacher of eloquence, that he used to apply the spur 
to Ephorus, but to put the rein on Theopompus; for the one,\ 
who overleaped all bounds in the boldness of his expressions, 1 
he restrained; the other, who hesitated and was bashful, as 
it were, he stimulated : nor did he produce in them any 
resemblance to each other, but gave to the one such an addi- 
tion, and retrenched from the other so much superfluity, as 
to form in both that excellence of which the natural genius 
of each was susceptible. 

X. ^^ I thought it necessary to premise these ^particulars. 



342 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. III. 

that if every remark of mine did not exactly adapt itself to 
the inclinations of you all, and to that peculiar style of speak- 
ing which each of you most admired, you might be sensible 
that I described that character of eloquence of which I myself 
most approved. 

" Those matters, therefore, of which Antonius has treated 
so explicitly, are to be endowed with action and elocution by 
the orator in some certain manner. What manner of elocu- 
tion can be better (for I will consider action by-and-by) than ^ 
that of speaking in pure Latin, with perspicuity, with grace- • 
fulness, and with aptitude and congruity to the subject in 
question ? Of the two which I mentioned first, purity and 
clearness of language, I do not suppose that any account is 
expected from me ; for we do not attempt to teach him to be 
an orator who cannot speak ; nor can we hope that he who 
cannot speak grammatical Latin will speak elegantly; nor 
that he who cannot speak ^vhat we can understand, will ever 
speak anything for us to admire. Let us, therefore, omit 
these matters, which are easy of attainment, though necessary 
in practice ; for the one is taught in school-learning and the 
rudiments of children; the other ^ is cultivated for this reason, 
that what every person says may be understood, — a qualifica- 
tion which we perceive indeed to be necessary, yet that none 
can be held in less estimation.^ But all elegance of lan- 
guage, though it receive a polish fi'om the science of grammar, 
is yet augmented by the reading of orators and poets ; for 
those ancients, who could not then adorn what they expressed, 
had almost all a kind of nobleness of diction; and those 
who are accustomed to their style cannot express themselves 
otherwise than in pure Latin, even though they desire to do 
so. Yet we must not make use of such of their words as our 
modern mode of speaking does not admit, unless sometimes 
for the sake of ornament, and but sparingly, as I shall ex- 
plain; but he who is studious and much conversant with 
ancient writers, will make such use of common expressions as 
always to adopt the most eligible. 

XI. ^' In order to speak pure Latin, we must take care not 
only to use words with which nobody can justly find fault, 

^ Perspicuity. 

2 This seems to be speaking rather too lightly of the merit of 
perspicuity, which Quintilian pronounces the chief virtue of language. 



C. XI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 343 

and preserve the construction by proper cases, and tenses, 
and genders, and numbers, so that there may be nothing con- 
fused, or incongruous, or preposterous; but also that the 
tongue, and the breath, and the tone of the voice come under 
proper regulation. I would not have letters sounded with 
too much affectation, or uttered imperfectly through negli- 
gence; I would not have the words dropped out without 
expression or spirit ; I would not have them puffed and, as it 
were, panted forth, with a difficulty of breathing; for I do 
not as yet speak of those things relating to the voice which 
belong to oratorical delivery, but merely of that which seems 
to me to concern pronunciation. For there are certain faults 
which every one is desirous to avoid, as a too delicate and 
effeminate tone of voice, or one that is extravagantly harsh 
and grating. There is also a fault which some industriously 
strive to attain; a rustic and rough pronunciation is agree- 
able to some, that their language, if it has that tone, may 
seem to partake more of antiquity; as Lucius Cotta, an ac- 
quaintance of yours, Catulus, appears to me to take a delight 
in the broadness of his speech and the rough sound of his 
voice, and thinks that what he says will savour of the antique 
if it certainly savour of rusticity. But your harmony and 
sweetness delight me ; I do not refer to the harmony of your 
words, which is a principal point, but one which method in- 
troduces, learning teaches, practice in reading and speaking 
confirms ; but I mean the mere sweetness of pronunciation, 
which, as among the Greeks it was peculiar to the Athenians, 
so in the Latin tongue is chiefly remarkable in this city. At 
I Athens, learning among the Athenians themselves has long 
I been entirely neglected ; there remains in that city only the 
, seat of the studies which the citizens do not cultivate, but 
which foreigners enjoy, being captivated in a manner with 
the very name and authority of the place ; yet any illiterate 
Athenian will easily surpass the most learned Asiatics,-^ not in 
his language, but in sweetness of tone, not so much in speak- 
ing well as in speaking agreeably. Our citizens^ pay less* 
attention to letters than the people of Latium, yet among all 
the people that you know in the city, who have the least 

^ The Asiatic Greeks. 

2 Those who are bom at Rome apply themselves to the liberal 
f sciences less than the rest of the people of Latium. Proust. 



344 DE ORATOREj OR, [e III. 

tincture of literature, there is not one who would not have 
a manifest advantage over Quintus Valerius of Sora,^ the most 
learned of all the Latins, in softness of voice, in conformation 
of the mouth, and in the general tone of pronunciation. 

XII. " As there is a certain tone of voice, therefore, peculiar 
to the Roman people and city, in which nothing can offend, 
or displease, nothing can be liable to animadversion, nothing 
sound or savour of what is foreign, let us cultivate that tone, ■ 
and learn to avoid not only the asperity of rustic but the 
strangeness of outlandish pronunciation. Indeed when I 
listen to my wife's mother, Lselia,^ (for women more easily 
preserve the ancient language unaltered, because, not having 
experience of the conversation of a multitude of people, they 
always retain what they originally learned,) I hear her with 
such attention that I imagine myself listening to Plant us or 
Nsevius ; she has a tone of voice so unaffected and simple, that 
it seems to carry in it nothing of ostentation or imitation ; 
from whence I judge that her father and forefathers spoke in 
like manner ; not with a rough tone, as he whom I mentioned, 
nor with one broad, or rustic, or too open, but with one that 
was close and equable and smooth. Our friend Gotta, there- 
fore, whose broad manner of speaking you, Sulpicius, some- 
times imitate, so as to drop the letter I and pronounce E as 
full as possible, does not seem to me to resemble the ancient 
orators, but the modern farmers." As Sulpicius laughed at 
this, " I will act with you," said Crassus, " in such a manner, 
that, as you oblige me to speak, you shall hear something of 
your own faults." '' I wish we may," replied Sulpicius, " for 
that is what we desire; and if you do so, we shall to-day, 
I fancy, throw off many of our inelegances." " But," said 
Crassus, " I cannot censure you, Sulpicius, without being in 
danger of censure myself; since Antonius has declared that 
he thinks you very similar to me."^ " But," rejoined Sulpicius, 
^^ as Antonius also recommended us to imitate those things 
which were most conspicuous in any one,^ I am afraid in con- 
sequence that I may have copied nothing from you but the 
stamping of your foot, and a few particular expressions, and 

* See Brut. c. 46. 

2 The daughter of Caius Laelius Sapiens, who was married to Quintus 
Mucins Scaevola, the augur. See Brut. c. 58 ; Quint, i. 1, 6. Ellendt, 

3 See ii. 21; Brut. c. 5^. * See ii. 22. 



C. XIII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 345 

perhaps something of your action." " With what you have 
caught from me, then," said Crassus, ^^ I find no fault, lest I 
should ridicule myself; (but there are many more and 
greater faults of mine than you mention j) of faults, however, 
which are evidently your own, or taken by imitation from 
any third person, I shall admonish you whenever opportunity 
may remind me of them. 

XIII. '' Let us therefore pass over the rules for speaking the 
Latin tongue in its purity; which the teaching given to 
children conveys, which refined knowledge and method in 
study, or the habit of daily and domestic conversation 
cherishes, and which books and the reading of the ancient 
orators and poets confirm. Nor let us dwell long upon that 
other point, so as to discuss by what means we may succeed 
in making what we say understood ; an object which we shall 
doubtless effect by speaking good Latin, adopting words 
in common use, and such as aptly express what we wish to 
communicate or explain, without any ambiguous word or 
phrase, not making our sentences too long, not making such 
observations as are drawn from other subjects, for the sake of 
comparison, too prolix; avoiding all incoherency of thought, 
reversion of the order of time, all confusion of persons, all 
irregularity of arrangement whatever. In short, the whole 
matter is so easy, that it often appears astonishing to me, that 
what the advocate would express should be more difficult to 
understand, than he who employs the advocate w^ould be, if 
he were to speak on his own business ; for the persons them- 
selves who bring cases to us, give us in general such instruc- 
tions, that you would not desire anything to be delivered in 
a plainer manner; but as soon as Fufius, or your equal in age 
Pomponius,^ proceeds to plead those cases, I do not find them 
equally intelligible, unless I give an extraordinary degree of 
attention; their speech is so confused pvud ill arranged that 
there is nothing first, and nothing second; there is such 
a jumble of strange words, that language, which ought to 
throw a light upon things, involves them in obscmity and 
darkness; and the speakers, in what they say, seem in a 
manner to contradict themselves. But, if it is agreeable, 
since I think that these topics must appear troublesome and 
distasteful, at least to you of a more advanced age,"^ let us 
^ See i. 39 ; Brut. c. 57, 62, 90. EllendU ^ Antonius and Catulus. 



346 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. III. 

proceed to other matters which may prove still more unsatis- 
factory, "i 

XIV. " You see," said Antonius, " how inattentive we are, 
and how unwillingly we listen to you,^ when we might be in- 
duced (I judge from myself) to neglect all other concerns to 
follow you and give you our attention ; so elegant are your 
remarks upon unpleasing, so copious upon barren, so new 
upon common subjects." 

" Those two parts indeed, Antonius," continued Crassus, 
"which I have just run over, or rather have almost passed by, 
that of speaking in pure Latin, and with perspicuity, were 
easy to treat ; those which remain are important, intricate, 
diversified, weighty, on which depends all the admiration 
bestowed upon ability and all the praise given to eloquence; 
for nobody ever admired an orator for merely speaking good 
Latin ; if he speaks otherwise, they ridicule him ; and not 
only do not think him an orator, but not even a man. Nor 
has any one ever extolled a speaker for merely speaking 
in such a manner that those who were present understood 
what he said; though every one has despised him who was 
not able to do so. Whom then do men regard with awe? 
What speaker do they behold with astonishment 1 At whom 
do they utter exclamations'? Whom do they consider as 
a deity, if I may use the expression, amongst mortals'? Him 
who speaks distinctly, explicitly, copiously, and luminously, 
both as to matter and words ; who produces in his language 
a sort of rhythm and harmony ; who speaks, as I call it, grace- 
fully. Those also who treat their subject as the importance of 
things and persons requires, are to be commended for that 
peculiar kind of merit, which I term aptitude and congruity. 
Antonius said that he had never seen any who. spoke in such 
a manner, and observed that to such only was to be attri- 
buted the distinguishing title of eloquence. On my authority, 
therefore, deride and despise all those who imagine that 
from the precepts of such as are now called rhetoricians they 
have gained all the powers of oratory, and have not yet been 
able to understand what character they hold, or what they 
profess ; for indeed, by an orator everything that relates to 
human life, since that is the field on which his abilities are 
displayed, and is the subject for his eloquence, should be ex- 

' Odiosiora. Auditoribus odiosiora, Schutz. ^ Ironicallv 



C. XV.] ox THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 347 

amined, heard, read, discussed, handled, and considered ; since 
eloquence is one of the most eminent virtues ; and though all 
the virtues are in their nature equal and alike, yet one species 
is more beautiful and noble than another ; as is this power, 
which, comprehending a knowledge of things, expresses the 
thoughts and purposes of the mind in such a manner, that it 
can impel the audience whithersoever it inclines its force ; 
and, the greater is its influence, the more necessary it is that 
it should be united with probity and eminent judgment ; for 
if we bestow the faculty of eloquence upon persons destitute 
of these virtues, we shall not make them orators, but give 
arms to madmen. 

XV. *^ This faculty, I say, of thinking and speaking, this 
power of eloquence, the ancient Greeks denominated wisdom. 
Hence the Lycurgi, the Pittaci, the Solonsj and, compared 
with them, our Coruncanii, Fabricii, Catos, and Scipios, were 
perhaps not so learned, but were certainly of a like force and 
inclination of mind. Others, of equal ability, but of dissimilar 
affection towards the pursuits of life, preferred ease and 
retirement, as Pythagoras, Democritus, Anaxagoras, and 
transferred their attention entirely from civil polity to the 
contemplation of nature ; a mode of life which, on account of 
its tranquillity, and the pleasure derived from science, than 
which nothing is more delightful to mankind, attracted 
a greater number than was of advantage to public concerns. 
Accordingly, as men of the most excellent natural talents 
gave themselves up to that study, in the enjoyment of the 
greatest abundance of free and unoccupied time, so men of 
the greatest learning, blessed with excess of leisure and fer- 
tility of thought, imagined it their duty to make more things 
than were really necessary the objects of their attention, 
investigation, and inquiry. That ancient learning, indeed, 
appears to have been at the same time the preceptress of 
living rightly and of speaking well ; nor were there separate 
masters for those subjects, but the same teachers formed the 
morals and the language ; as Phoenix in Homer, who says 
that he was appointed a companion in war to the young 
Achilles by his father Peleus, to make him an orator in 
words, and a hero in deeds. But as men accustomed to 
constant and daily employment, when they are hindered from 
their occupation by the weather, betake themselves to play at 



348 DE OEATOEE ; OR, [b. III. 

ball, or dice, or draughts, or even invent some new game of 
their own to amuse their leisure; so they, being either 
excluded from public employments, as from business, by the 
state of the times, or being idle from inclination, gave them- 
selves up wholly, some to the poets, some to the geometers, 
some to music ; others even, as the logicians, found out a new 
study and exercise for themselves, and consumed their whole 
time and lives in those arts which have been discovered 
to form the minds of youth to learning and to virtue. 

XYI. " But, because there were some, and those not a few, 
who either were eminent in public affairs, through their two- 
fold excellence in acting and speaking, excellences which are 
indeed inseparable, as Themistocles, Pericles, Theramenes ; or 
who, though they were not employed themselves in public 
affairs, were teachers of others in thai science, as Gorgias, 
Thrasymachus, Isocrates; there appeared others who, being 
themselves men of abundant learning and ingenuity, but averse 
to political business and employments, derided and despised 
the exercise of oratory; at the head of which party was 
Socrates. He, who, by the testimony of all the learned, and 
the judgment of all Greece, was the first of all men as well 
in wisdom and penetration, grace and refinement, as in elo- 
quence, variety, and copiousness of language on whatever 
• subject he took in hand, deprived of their common name 
those who handled, treated, and gave instruction in those 
matters which are the objects of our present inquiry, when 
they were previously comprised under one appellation ; as all 
knowledge in the best arts and sciences, and all exercise in 
them, was denominated philosophy ; and he separated in his 
/ discussions the ability of thinking wisely, and speaking grace- 
\ fully, though they are naturally united ; Socrates, I say, 
whose great genius and varied conversation Plato has in his 
Dialogues consigned to immortality, he himself having left 
us nothing in writing. Hence arose that divorce as it 
were of the tongue from the heart, a division certainly 
absurd, useless, and reprehensible, that one class of persons 
should teach us to think, and another to speak, rightly : for, 
as many reasoners had their origin almost from Socrates, 
and as they caught up some one thing, some another, froni 
his disputations, which were various, diversifi.ed, and difi"usive 
^i-^on all subjects, many sects as it were became propagated. 



C. XVI [.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 349 

dissentiilg one from another, and much divided and very dis- 
similar in opinions, though all the philosophers wished to be 
called, and thought that thev were, Socratics. 

XVII. " First from Plato himself came Aristotle and 
Xenocrates; the one of whom founded the Peripatetic sect, 
the other the Academy; and from Antisthenes, who was 
chiefly delighted with the patience and endurance recom- 
mended in the discourses of Socrates, sprung first the Cynics, 
afterwards the Stoics. Next, from Aristippus, for whom the 
dissertations on pleasure had greater charms, emanated the 
Cyrenaic philosophy, which he and his followers maintained 
in its simplicity j those who in our days measure all things 
by the standard of pleasure, while they act more modestly in 
this particular, neither satisfy that dignity which they are 
far from rejecting, nor adhere to that pleasure which they 
are inclined to embrace. There were also other sects of phi- 
losophers, who almost all in general called themselves the 
followers of Socrates; as those of the Eretrians, Herillians, 
Megarians, and Pyrrhonians ; but these have long since been 
overthrown and extinguished by the superior arguments of 
the others. Of those which remain, that philosophy which 
has undertaken the patronage of pleasure, however true it 
may appear to some, is very unsuitable for that personage of 
whom we are forming a conception, and whom we would have • 
to be of authority in public councils, a leader in the admi- 
nistration of government, a consummate master of thought 
and eloquence, as well in the senate, as in popular assemblies, 
and in public causes. Yet no injury shall be done to that phi- 
losophy by us; for it shall not be repelled from the mark at 
which it wishes to aim, but shall repose quietly in its gardens, 
where it wishes, and where, reclining softly and delicately, it 
calls us away from the rostra, from the courts of justice, and 
from the senate, and perhaps wisely, especially in such times of 
the republic as these. But my present inquiry is not which 
philosophy is the nearest to truth, but which is the best 
suited to the orator. Let us therefore dismiss those of this 
sect without any contumely; for they are well-meaning, 
and, as they seem so to themselves, happy; let us only 
admonish them to keep that maxim of theirs, though it be 
eminently true, secret however as a mystery, I mean their 
denial that it is the part of a wise man to concern himself 



350 DE ORATORE ; (^U, [b. HI. 

with public affairs ; for if -they should convince us, and every \ 
man of eminent ability, of the truth of that maxim, they will 
be unable to remain, as they especially desire, in tranquillity. J 

XVIII. " The Stoics, too, whom I by no means disapprove^ 
I notwithstanding dismiss; nor am I afraid that they will be 
angry, as they are proof against anger; and I feel grateful 
to them on this account, that they alone, of all the philoso- 
phers, have declared eloquence to be virtue and wisdom. 
But there are two peculiarities in their doctrine, which are 
quite unsuitable to that orator whom w^e are forming ; one, 
that they pronounce all who are not wise, to be slaves, 
robbers, enemies, and madmen, and yet do not admit that 
any person is wise ; (but it would be very absurd to trust the 
interests of an assembly of the people, or of the senate, or 
any other body of men, to one to whom none of those present 
would appear to be in their senses, none to be citizens, none 
to be freemen;) the other, that they have a manner of 
speaking which is perhaps subtle, and certainly acute, but 
for an orator, dry, strange, unsuited to the ear of the popu- 
lace, obscure, barren, jejune, and altogether of that species 
which a speaker cannot use to a multitude. Other citizens, 
or rather all other people, have very different notions of good 
and evil from the Stoics; their estimation of honour and 
ignominy, rew-^*vis and punishments, is entirely different; 
w^hether justly or otherwise, is nothing to the present occa- 
sion ; but if we should adopt their notions, we should never 
be able to expedite any business by speaking. The remaining 
sects are the Peripatetic and the Academic; though of the 
Academics, notwithstanding there is but one name, there are 
two distinct systems of opinion; for Speusippus, Plato's 
sister s son, and Xenocrates, w^ho had been a hearer of Plato, 
and Polemo, who had been a hearer of Xenocrates, and 
Grantor, differed in no great degree from Aristotle, who had 
also been a hearer of Plato; in copiousness and variety of 
diction, however, they were perhaps unequal to him. Arce- 
silas, who had been a hearer of Polemo, was the first who 
eagerly embraced the doctrine drawn from the various 
writings of Plato and the discourses of Socrates, that ^ there 
is nothing certain to be known, either by the senses or the 
understanding;' he is reported to have adopted an eminently 
graceful manner of speaking, to have rejected all judgment 



C. XIX. J ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 351 

of the mind and the senses, and to have established first the 
practice (though it was indeed greatly ado])ted by Socrates) 
of not declaring what he himself thought, but of disputing 
against whatever any other person said that he thought. 
Hence the New Academy derived its origin, in which Car- 
neades distinguished himself by a quickness of wit, that was 
in a manner divine, and a peculiar force of eloquence. I 
knew many at Athens who had been hearers of this philo- 
sopher, but I can refer for his character to two persons of 
undoubted authority, my father-in-law Sceevola, who heard 
him when a youth at Eome, and Quintus Metellus, the son 
of Lucius, my intimate friend, a man of high dignity, who 
informed me that in the early part of his life at Athens, he 
attended for many days the lectures of this celebrated phi- 
losopher, then almost broken with age.^ 

XIX. ^' But the streams of learning have flowed from the 
common summit of science,^ like rivers from the Apennines, 
in different directions, so that the philosophers have passed, 
as it were, into the Upper or Ionian sea, a Greek sea, abound- 
ing with harbours, but the orators have fallen into the Lower 
or Tuscan, a barbarian sea, infested with rocks and dangers, 
in which even Ulysses himself had mistaken his course. If, 
therefore, we are content with such a degree of eloquence, 
and such an orator as has the common discretion to know 
that you ought either to deny the charge which is brought 
against you, or, if you cannot do that, to show that what he 
who is accused has committed, was either done justifiably, or 
through th.e fault or wrong of some other person, or that it 
is agreeable to law, or at least not contrary to any law, or 
that it was done without design, or from necessity; or that 
it does not merit the term given it in the accusation; or that 
the pleading is not conducted as it ought to have been or 
might have been; and if you think it sufficient to have 
learned the rules which the writers on rhetoric have delivered, 
which however Antonius has set forth with much more grace 
and fulneso than they are treated by them ; if, I say, you are 

^ Qui illv/n a se adolescente Athenis jam affectiLm senectute multos dies 
auditum esse dicehat. " Who said that he had been heard by him when 
a young man for many days at Athens (where he was) now affected 
with old age." 

2 Ex communi sapientium jugo. I read sapienfice with Ellendt. It is 
a comparison, as he observes, of Socrates to a hill. 



352 DE oratore; or, [b.iii. 

content with these qualifications, and those which you wished 
to be specified by me, you reduce the orator from a spacious 
and immense field of action into a very narrow compass: 
but if you are desirous to emulate Pericles, or Demo- 
sthenes, who is more familiar to us from his numerous 
writings; and if you are captivated with this noble and 
illustrious idea and excellence of a perfect orator, you must 
include in your minds all the powers of Carneades, or those 
of Aristotle. For, as I observed before, the ancients, till the 
time of Socrates, united all knowledge and science in all 
things, whether they appertained to morality, to the duties 
of life, to virtue, or to civil government, with the faculty of 
speaking; but afterwards, the eloquent being separated by 
Socrates from the learned, (as I have already explained,) and 
this distinction being continued by all the follow^ers of 
Socrates, the philosophers disregarded eloquence, and the 
orators philosophy; nor did they at all encroach upon each 
other's provinces, except that the orators borrowed from the 
philosophers, and the philosophers from the orators, such 
things as they would have taken from the common stock if 
they had been inclined to remain in their pristine union. 
But as the old pontiffs, on account of the multitude of reli- 
gious ceremonies, appointed three officers called Epulones,^ 
though they themselves were instituted by Numa to perform 
the epulare sacrificium at the games; so the followers of 
Socrates excluded the pleaders of causes from their own 
body, and from the common title of philosophers, though 
the ancients were of opinion that there was a miraculous 
harmony between speaking and understanding. 

XX. " Such being the case, I shall crave some little indul- 
gence for myself, and beg you to consider that whatever 
I say, I say not of myself, but of the complete orator. For I 
am a person, who, having been educated in my boyhood, with 
great care on the part of my father, and having brought into 
the forum such a portion of talent as I am conscious of possess- 
ing, and not so much as I may perhaps appear to you to have, 
cannot aver that I learned what I now comprehend, exactly 
as I shall say that it ought to be learned ; since I engaged iii 
public business most early of all men, and at one-an d- twenty [ I 
years of age brought to trial a man of the highest rank, and \ 
^ See Liv. xxxiii. 42. 



C. XXI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 353 

the greatest eloqaence;^ and the forum has been my school, 
and practice, with the laws and institutions of the Eoman 
people, and the customs of our ancestors, my instructors. I 
got a small taste of those sciences of which I am speaking, 
feeling some thirst for them, while I was quaestor in Asia, 
having procured a rhetorician about my own age from the 
Academy, that Metrodorus, of whose memory Antonius has 
made honourable mention; and, on my departure from Asia, 
at Athens, where I should have stayed longer, had I not been 
displeased with the Athenians, who would not repeat their 
mysteries, for which I came two days too late. The fact, 
therefore, that I comprise within my scheme so much science, 
and attribute so much influence to learning, makes not only 
not in my favour, but rather against me, (for I am not con- 
sidering what I, but what a perfect orator can do,) and against 
all those who put forth treatises on the art of rhetoric, and 
who are indeed obnoxious to extreme ridicule ; for they write 
merely about the several kinds of suits, about exordia, and 
statements of facts; but the real power of eloquence is such,^i 
that it embraces the origin, the influence, the changes of 
all things in the world, all virtues, duties, and all nature, so 
far as it afiects the manners, minds, and lives of mankind. ^ 
It can give an account of customs, laws, and rights, can ■ 
govern a state, and speak on everything relating to any sub- 
ject whatsoever with elegance and force. In this pursuit I 
employ my talents as well as I can, as far as I am enabled by 
natural capacity, moderate learning, and constant practice; 
nor do I conceive myself much inferior in disputation to 
those who have as it were pitched their tent for life in phi- 
losophy alone. 

XXI. " For what can my friend Caius Yelleius ^ allege, to 
show why pleasure is the chief good, which I cannot either 
maintain more fully, if I were so inclined, or refute, with the 
aid of those common-places which Antonius has set forth, and 
that habit of speaking in which Yelleius himself is unexercised, 
but every one of us experienced 1 What is there that either 
Sextus Pompeius, or the two Balbi,^ or my acquaintance 

^ Carbo. See note on i. 10. 

2 The same that speaks, in the dialogue De Naturd Dew^umf on Xzlq 
tenets of the Epicureans. 

^ One Balbus is a speaker in the De Nat. Deorum^ on the doctrines 

A A 



354 DE oratore; or, [b. hi. 

Marcus Yigellius, who lived with Panaetius, all men of the 
Stoic sect, can maintain concerning virtue, in such a manner 
that either I, or any one of you, should give place to them in 
debate ? For philosophy is not like other arts or sciences ; 
since what can he do in geometry, or in music, who has never 
learned? He must be silent, or be thought a madman; but 
the principles of philosophy are discovered by such minds as 
have acuteness and penetration enough to extract what is 
most probable concerning any subject, and are elegantly 
expressed with the aid of exercise in speaking. On such 
topics, a speaker of ordinary abilities, if he has no great 
learning, but has had practice in declaiming, will, by virtue 
of such practice, common to others as well as to him, beat 
our friends the philosophers, and not suffer himself to be 
despised and held in contempt; but if ever a person shall 
arise who shall have abilities to deliver opinions on both 
sides of a question on all subjects, after the manner of 
Aristotle, and, from a knowledge of the precepts of that phi- 
losopher, to deliver two contradictory orations on every con- 
ceivable topic, or shall be able, after the manner of Arcesilas 
or Carneades, to dispute against every proposition that can 
be laid down, and shall unite with those powers rhetorical 
skill, and practice and exercise in speaking, he will be the true, 
the perfect, the only orator. For neither without the nervous 
eloquence of the forum, can an orator have sufficient weight, 
dignity, and force ; nor, without variety of learning, sufficient 
elegance and judgment. Let us suffer that old Corax of yours,^ 
therefore, to hatch his young birds in the nest, that they 
may fly out disagreeable and troublesome bawlers ; and let us 
allow Pamphilus, whoever he was,^ to depict a science of such 

of the Stoics. The other, says Ellendt, is supposed to be the lawyer 
who is mentioned by Cicero, Brut. c. 42, and who was the master of 
Servius Sulpicius. Of Vigellius nothing is known. 

^ See i. 20. He jokes on the name of Corax, which signifies a crow. 

2 Pamphilum nescio quern. Some suppose him to be the painter that 
is mentioned as the instructor of Apelles by Pliny, H. N. xxxv. 36. 8. 
He seems, whoever he was, to have given some fanciful map-like view 
of the rules of rhetoric. But it is not intimated by Pliny that the 
Pamphilus of whom he speaks was, though a learned painter, anything 
more than a painter. A Pamphilus is mentioned by Quintilian, iii. 6. 
34; xii. 10. 6; and by Aristotle, Rhet. ii. 23. By infulce in the text, 
which I have rendered " flags," Ellendt supposes that something similar 
to our printed cotton handkerchiefs, or flags hung out at booths at 



C. XXII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 355 

consequence upon flags, as if for an amusement for children ; 
while we ourselves describe the whole business of an orator, 
in so short a disputation as that of yesterday and to- 
day; admitting, however, that it is of such extent as to be 
spread through all the books of the philosophers, into which 
none of those rhetoricians ^ has ever dipped." 

XXII. Catulus then said, " It is, indeed, by no means 
astonishing, Crassus, that there should appear in you either 
such energy, or such agreeableness, or such copiousness of lan- 
guage ; though I previously supposed that it was merely from 
the force of natural genius that you spoke in such a way as 
to seem to me not only the greatest of orators, but the 
wisest of men ; but I now understand that you have always 
given precedence to matters relating to philosophy, and your 
copious stream of eloquence has flowed from that source ; and 
yet, when I recollect the diflerent stages of your life, and 
when I consider your manner of living and pursuits, I can 
neither conceive at what time you acquired that learning, nor 
can I imagine you to be strongly addicted to those studies, 
or men, or writings ; nor can I determine at which of these 
two things I ought most to feel surprised, that you could 
obtain a thorough knowledge of those matters which you 
persuade me are of the utmost assistance to oratory, amid 
such important occupations as yours, or that, if you could 
not do so, you can speak with such effect." Here Crassus 
rejoined, " I would have you first of all, Catulus, persuade 
yourself of this, that, when I speak of an orator, I speak not 
much otherwise than I should do if I had to speak of an 
actor; for I should say that he could not possibly give satis- 
faction in his gesture unless he had learned the exercises of 
the palaestra, and dancing ; nor would it be necessary that, 
,when I said this, I should be myself a player, though it per- 
haps would be necessary that I should be a not unskilful 
critic in another man's profession. In like manner I am now, 
at your request, speaking of the orator, that is, the perfect 
orator ; for, about whatever art or faculty inquiry is made, it 
always relates to it in its state of absolute perfection ; and if, 

i fairs, is meant. Talseus thinks that the tables of rules might have 
been called infulce in ridicule, from their shape. 

^ Such " disagreeable and troublesome bawlers," as those from the 
nest of Corax just mentioned. Ernesti, 

aa2 



356 DE oeatore; or, [b. hi. 

therefore, you now allow me to be a speaker, if even a pretty 
good one, or a positively good one, I will not contradict yon ; 
(for why should I, at my time of life, be so foolish? I know 
that I am esteemed such;) but, if it be so, I am certainly not 
perfect. For there is not among mankind any pursuit of 
greater difficulty or effort, or that requires more aids from 
learning ; but, since I have to speak of the orator, I must 
of necessity speak of the perfect orator; for unless the 
powers and nature of a thing be set before the eyes in their 
utmost perfection, its character and magnitude cannot be 
understood. Yet I confess, Catulus, that I do not at present 
live in any great familiarity with the writings or the pro- 
fessors of philosophy, and that, as you have rightly observed, 
I never had much leisure to set apart for the acquisition 
of such learning, and that I have only given to study such 
portions of time as my leisure when I was a youth, and vaca- 
tions from the business of the forum, have allowed me. 

XXIII. '^ But if, Catulus, you inquire my sentiments on 
that learning, I am of opinion that so much time need not be 
spent on it by a man of ability, and one who studies with a 
view to the forum, to the senate, to causes, to civil administra- 
tion, as those have chosen to give to it whom life has fe,iled 
while they were learning. For all arts are handled in one 
manner by those who apply them to practice ; in another by 
those who, taking delight in treating of the arts themselves, 
never intend to do anything else during the whole course of 
their lives. The master of the gladiators ^ is now in the ex- 
tremity of age, yet daily meditates upon the improvement of 
his science, for he has no other care; but Quintus Yelocius^ 
had learned that exercise in his youth, and, as he was na- 
turally formed for it, and had thoroughly acquired it, he was, 
as it is said in Lucilius, 

Though as a gladiator in the school 

Well skill' d, and bold enough to match with any, 

yet resolved to devote more attention to the duties of the forum, 
and of friendship, and to his domestic concerns. Valerius^ 
sung every day ; for he was on the stage ; what else was he 

^ See note on ii. 80. 

2 This name was introduced on the conjecture of Victorius. Pre- 
viously the passage was unintelligible. 

^ Of Valerius and Furius nothing is known. Ellendt. 



C. XXIV.J ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 357 

to do 1 But our friend Numerius Furius sings only when it 
is agreeable to him ; for he is the head of a family, and of 
equestrian dignity ; he learned when a boy as much as it was 
necessary for him to learn. The case is similar with regard 
to sciences of the greatest importance ; we have seen Quintus 
Tubero,^ a man of eminent virtue and prudence, engaged in 
the study of philosophy night and day, but his uncle Africa- 
nus ^ you could scarcely ever perceive paying any attention 
to it, though he paid a great deal. Such knowledge is easily 
gained, if you only get as much of it as is necessary, and 
have a faithful and able instructor, and know how to learn 
yourself But if you are inclined to do nothing else all your 
life, your very studies and inquiries daily give rise to some- 
thing for you to investigate as an amusement at your leisure ; 
thus it happens, that the investigation of particular points is 
endless, though general knowledge is easy, if practice establish 
learning once acquired, moderate exercise be devoted to it, 
and memory and inclination continue. But it is pleasant to 
be constantly learning, if we wish to be thoroughly masters 
of anything ; as if I, for instance, had a desire to play excel- 
lently at backgammon, or had a strong attachment to tennis, 
though perhaps I should not attain perfection in those games ; 
but others, because they excel in any performance, take a 
more vehement delight in it than the object requires, as 
Titius ^ in tennis, BruUa in backgammon. There is no reason, 
therefore, why any one should dread the extent of the sciences 
because he perceives old men still learning them ; for either 
they were old men when they first applied to them, or have 
been detained in the study of them till they became old ; or 
are of more than ordinary stupidity. And the truth in my 
opinion is, that a man can never learn thoroughly that which 
he has not been able to learn quickly." 

XXI y. " Now, now," exclaimed Catulus, " I understand, 
Crassus, what you say, and readily assent to it ; I see that there 
has been time enough for you, a man of vigour and ability to 
learn, to acquire a knowledge of what you mention." " Do you 
still persist," rejoined Crassus, " to think that I say what I say 
of myself, and not of nay subject ? But, if it be agreeable to 

* Cic. Tusc. Qusest. iv. 2 ; Fin. iv. 9. 
2 «ee ii. 37. 

* Titius is mentioned ii. 62. Of Brulla nothing is known. EllendU 



358 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. III. 

yoa, let us now return to our stated business." " To me," 
said Catulus, " it is very agreeable.'^ 

" To what end, then," continued Crassus, " does this dis- 
course, drawn out to so great a length, and brought from 
such deep sources, tend '1 The two parts which remain for 
me, that of adorning language, and contemplating eloquence 
in general in its highest perfection, — one of which requires 
that we should speak gracefully, the other aptly, — have this 
influence, that eloquence is rendered by their means pro- 
ductive of the utmost delight, made to penetrate effectually 
into the inmost hearts of the audience, and furnished with 
all possible variety of matter. But the speech which we use 
in the forum, adapted for contest, full of acrimony, formed 
to suit the taste of the vulgar, is poor indeed and beggarly ; 
and, on the other hand, even that which they teach who pro- 
fess themselves masters of the art of speaking, is not of much 
more dignity than the common style of the forum. We have 
need of greater pomp,^ of choice matter collected, imported, 
and brought together from all parts; such a provision as 
must be made by you, Caesar, for the next year,^ with such 
pains as I took in my sedileship, because I did not suppose 
that I could satisfy such a people as ours with ordinary mat- 
ters, or those of their own country. 

" As for choosing and arranging words, and forming them 
into proper periods, the art is easy, or, I may say, the mere 
practice without any art at all. Of matter, the quantity and 
variety are infinite; and as the Greeks^ were not properly 
furnished with it, and our youth in consequence almost 
grew ignorant while they were learning, even Latin teachers 
of rhetoric, please the gods, have arisen within the last two 
years; a class of persons whom I had suppressed by my 
edict,^ when I was censor, not because I was unwilling (as 

^ Apjpai^atu. In allusion, says Petavius, to the shows given by the 
sediles. 

^ Ad annum. That of his sedileship. Ernesti. 

^ The Greek rhetoricians. Pearce. 

* Quintilian refers to this passage, ii. 4. 42 The edict of the 

censors Crassus and Ahenobarbus, which was marked by all the 
ancient severity, is preserved in Aul. Gell. xv. 11 ; and Suetonius, De 
Clar. Ehet. prooem. Crassus intimates that that class of men sprung up 
again after his edict ; for the censors had not such power that their 
mere prohibitions could continue in force after their term of office was 
expired. Ellendt, 



C. XXV.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 359 

some, I know not who, asserted,) that the abilities of our 
youth should be improved, but because I did not wish that 
their understandings should be weakened and their impudence 
strengthened. For among the Greeks, whatever was their 
( character, I perceived that there was, besides exercise of the 
I tongue, some degree of learning, as well as politeness suited 
to liberal knowledge; but I knew that these new masters 
could teach youth nothing but effrontery, which, even when 
joined with good qualities, is to be avoided, and, in itself, 
especially so ; and as this, therefore, was the only thing that 
was taught by the Latins, their school being indeed a school 
of impudence, I thought it became the censor to take care 
that the evil should not spread further. I do not, however, 
determine and decree on the point, as if I despa.ired that the 
subjects which we are discussing can be delivered, and treated 
with elegance, in Latin ; for both our language and the nature 
of things allows the ancient and excellent science of Greece to 
be adapted to our customs and manners; but for such a work 
are required men of learning, such as none of our country- 
men have been in this department; but if ever such arise, 
they will be preferable to the Greeks themselves. 

XXV. "A speech, then, is to be made becoming in its 
kind, with a sort of complexion and substance of its own ; for 
that it be weighty, agreeable, savouring of erudition and 
liberal knowledge, worthy of admiration, polished, having 
feeling and passion in it, as far as is required, are qualities 
not confined to particular members, but are apparent in the 
whole body; but that it be, as it were, strewed with flowers 
of language and thought, is a property which ought not to be 
equally diffused throughout the whole speech, but at such, 
intervals, that, as in the arrangement of ornaments,^ there '^ 
may be certain remarkable and luminous objects disposed/ 
here and there. Such a kind of eloquence, therefore, is to be 
chosen, as is most adapted to interest the audience, such as 
may not only delight, but delight without satiety; (for I do 
not imagine it to be expected of me, that I should admonish 
you to beware that your language be not poor, or rude, or 
vulgar, or obsolete; both your age and your geniuses en- 
( courage me to something of a higher nature ;) for it is difficult 

* In ornatu. The arrangement of such ornaments as were displayed 
at games and festivals. 



360 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. III. 

to tell what the cause is why, from those objects which 
most strongly strike our senses with pleasure, and occasion 
the most violent emotions at their first appearance, we should 
soonest turn away with a certain loathing and satiety. How 
much more florid, in the gaiety and variety of the colouring, 
are most objects in modern pictures than in ancient ones; 
which, however, though they captivate us at first sight, do 
not afford any lasting pleasure; whereas we are strongly 
attracted by rough and faded colouring in the paintings of 
antiquity. How much softer and more delicate are fanciful ^ 
modulations and notes in music, than those which are strict 
and grave ; and yet if the former are often repeated, not only 
persons of an austere character, but even the multitude, raise 
an outcry against them. We may perceive, too, in regard to 
the other senses, that we take a less permanent delight in 
perfumes composed of the sweetest and most powerful odours, 
than in those of a more moderate scent ; that that is more 
commended which appears to smell like wax, than that which 
is as strong as saffron ; and that, in the sense of feeling itself, 
there is a limit required both to softness and smoothness. 
How soon does even the taste, which of all our senses is the 
\ most desirous of gratification, and is delighted with sweetness 
^ 1 beyond the others, nauseate and reject that which is too 
j luscious ! Who can take sweet drinks and meats long 
1 together ? while, in both kinds of nutriment, such things as 
I affect the sense with but a slight pleasure are the furthest 
\ removed from that satiating quality; and so, in all other 
^ \ things, loathing still borders upon the most exquisite delights ; 
^ \ and therefore we should the less wonder at this effect in lan- 
guage, in which we may form a judgment, either from the 
poets or the orators, that a style elegant, ornate, embellished, 
and sparkling, without intermission, without restraint, with- 
, out variety, whether it be prose or poetry, though painted 
I with the brightest colours, cannot possibly give lasting 
' pleasure. And we the sooner take offence at the false locks 
and paint of the orator or poet, for this cause, that the senses, 
when affected with too much pleasure, are satiated, not from 
reason, but constitutionally; in writings and in speeches 
these disguised blemishes are even more readily noticed, not 

^ Falsce. Fractse et molliores. Ernesti, 



C. XXVI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 361 

only from the judgment of the ear, but from that of the 
understanding. 

XXYI. '^ Though such expressions of applause, therefore, as 
* very well,' ^ excellent,' may be often repeated to me, I would 
not have ^ beautifully,' ' pleasantly,' come too often ; yet 1 
would, have the exclamation, ' Nothing can be better,' verj^ 
frequent. But this high excellence and merit in speaking 
should be attended with some portions of shade and obscurity, 
that the part on which a stronger light is thrown may seem 
to stand out, and become more prominent. Roscius never 
delivers this passage with all the spirit that he can, 

The wise man seeks for honour, not for spoil, 
As the reward of virtue ; 

but rather in an abject manner, that into the next speech, 

What do I see ? the steel-girt soldier holds 
The sacred seats, 

he may throw his whole powers, may gaze, may express wonder 
and astonishment. How does the other great actor ^ utter 
What aid shall I solicit ? 

How gently, how sedately, how calmly ! For he proceeds 
with 

father ! my country ! House of Priam ! 

in which so much action could not be exerted if it had been 
consumed and exhausted by any preceding emotion. Nor 
did the actors discover this before the poets themselves, or, 
indeed, before even those who composed the music, by both of 
whom their tone is sometimes lowered, sometimes heightened, 
sometimes made slender, sometimes full, with variation and 
distinction. Let our orator, then, be thus graceful and de- 
lightful (nor can he indeed be so otherwise) ; let him have a 
severe and solid grace, not a luscious and delicious sweetness j 
for the precepts relative to the ornament of eloquence, which 
ai*e commonly given, are of such a nature that even the worst 
speaker can observe them. It is first of all necessary, there- 
fore, as I said before, that a stock of matter and thoughts be 
got together ; a point on which Antonius has already spoken ; 
these are to be interwoven into the very thread and essence 
of the oration, embellished by words, and diversified by 
illustrations. 

^ ^sopus, as I suppose. Ellendt ; who observes that the verses are 
from the Andromache of Ennius. See c. 47, 58 ; Tusc. Disp. iii. 19. 



362 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. III. 

" But the greatest glory of eloquence is to exaggerate a 
subject by embellishment; which has effect not only in am- 
plifying and extolling anything in a speech to an extra- 
ordinary degree, but also in extenuating it, and making it 
appear contemptible. XXVII. This is required on all those 
points which Antonius said must be observed in order to 
gain credit to our statements, when we explain anything, or 
when we conciliate the feelings, or when we excite the pas- 
sions of our audience ; but in the particular which I men- 
tioned last, amplification is of the greatest effect ; and excel- 
lence in it the pecuhar and appropriate praise of the orator. 
Even that exercise is of more than ordinary importance 
which Antonius illustrated ^ in the latter part of his disser- 
tation, (in the beginning ^ he set it aside,) I mean that of 
panegyric and satire ; for nothing is a better preparative for 
exaggeration and amplification in a speech than the talent of 
performing both these parts in a most effective manner. 
Consequently, even those topics are of use which, though 
they ought to be proper to causes, and to be inherent in 
their very vitals, yet, as they are commonly applied to ge- 
neral subjects, have been by the ancients denominated com- 
mon places; of which some consist in bitter accusations and 
complaints against vices and crimes, with a certain amplifica- 
tion, (in opposition to which nothing is usually said, or can 
be said,) as against an embezzler of the public money, or 
a traitor, or a parricide ; remarks which we ought to intro- 
duce when the charges have been proved, for otherwise they 
are jejune and trifling; others consist in entreaty or com- 
miseration; others relate to contested points of argument, 
whence you may be enabled to speak fully on either side of 
any general question, an exercise which is now imagined to 
be peculiar to those two sects of philosophy^ of which I spoke 
before ; among those of remote antiquity it belonged to those 
from whom all the art and power of speaking in forensic 
pleadings was derived;^ for concerning virtue, duty, justice 
and equity, dignity, utility, honour, ignominy, rewards and 
punishments, and similar subjects, we ought to possess the 
spirit, and talent, and address, to speak on either side of the 

1 B. ii. c. 84. 2 B. ii. c. 10. ' 

^ The Academic and Peripatetic ; see iii. 17, 18. Promt, 

* Those who taught forensic eloquence. Proust. 



C. XX VII I.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 363 

question. Bat since, being driven from our own possessions, 
we are left in a poor little farm, and even that the subject of 
litigation, and since, though the patrons of others, we have 
not been able to preserve and protect our own property, let 
us borrow what is requisite for us (which is a notable dis- 
grace) from those ^ who have made this irruption into our 
patrimony. 

XXYIII. " Those, then, who take their name from a very 
small portion ^ of Athens and its neighbourhood, and are 
denominated Peripatetic or Academic philosophers, but who 
formerly, on account of their eminent knowledge in important 
affairs, were by the Greeks called political philosophers, being 
distinguished by a name relating to all public administration, 
say that every speech on civil affairs is employed on one or 
other of these two kinds of questions, either that of a de- 
finite controversy limited to certain times and parties; as, 
' Whether is it proper that our captives be recovered from 
the Carthaginians by the restitution of theirs ? ' or on an 
indefinite question, inquiring about a subject generally; as, 
'What should be determined or considered concerning captives 
in general?' Of these, they term the former kind a cause or\ 
controversy, and limit it to three things, law-suits, delibera-/ 
tions, and panegyric ; but the other kind of question, or pro- 
position as it were, the indefinite, is denominated a consulta- 
tion.^ So far they instruct us. The rhetoricians, however, 
use this division in their instructions, but not so that they 
seem to recover a lost possession by right, by a decision in 
their favour, or by force, but appear, according to the prac- 
tice of the civil law, to assert their claim to the premises by 
breaking off a branch;^ for they keep possession of that 
former kind which is restricted to certain times, places, and 
parties, and that as it were by the hem of the garment ; ^ for 
at this present time, under Philo,^ who flourishes, I hear, as 

^ The philosophers. 

^ From the Academy, and the gymnasia in the suburbs of Athens. 
Ellendt. 

3 Consultatio. See Cic. Part. Orat. i. 18, 20. 

^ A ceremony by which a claim to a possession was made. See Gaius, 
iv. 17. 

^ Lacinia. Like persons who scarcely keep their hold of a thing. 
Elltndt. 

^ Philo of Larissa, called by some the founder of a fourth Academy, 
was a hearer of Chtomachus, Acad. ii. 6. He fled to Rome, with many 



364 DE ORATOREj OR, [b. III. 

chief of the Academy, the knowledge and practice of even 
these causes is much observed; as to the latter kind, they 
only mention it in delivering the first principles of the art, 
and say that it belongs to the orator; but neither explain its 
powers, nor its nature, nor its parts, nor general heads, so 
that it had better have been passed over entirely, than left 
when it was once attempted ; for they are now understood to 
say nothing about it for want of something to say; in the 
other case, they would have appeared to be silent from 
judgment. 

XXIX. " Every subject, then, has the same susceptibleness 
of ambiguity, concerning which it may be inquired and dis- 
puted ; whether the discussion relate to consultations on inde- 
finite points, or to those causes which are concerned with 
civil afikirs and contests in the forum ; nor is there any that 
may not be referred either to the nature and principles of 
knowledge or of action. For either the knowledge itself and 
acquaintance with any affair is the object of inquiry; as, 
' Whether virtue be desirable on account of its own intrinsic 
worth, or for the sake of some emolument attending if?' or 
counsel with regard to an act is sought ; as, ' Whether a wise 
man ought to concern himself in the administration of go- 
vernment ? ' And of knowledge there are three kinds, — that 
which is formed by conjecture, that which admits of certain 
definition, and that which is (if I may so term it) conse- 
quential. For whether there be anything in any other thing, 
is inquired by conjecture; as, 'Whether there is wisdom in 
mankind *? ' But what nature anything has, a definition ex- 
plains ; as if the inquiry be, ' What is wisdom ? ' And con- 
sequential knowledge is the subject treated of, when the 
question is, 'What peculiarity attends on anything?' as, 
* Whether it be the part of a good man to tell a falsehood on 
any occasion ?' But to conjecture they return again, and divide 
it into four kinds ; for the question is either, ' What a thing 
is,' as, ' Whether law among mankind is from nature or fi:om 
opinions?' or, 'What the origin of a thing is,' as, 'What is 
the foundation of civil laws and governments ? ' or the cause 

of the chief men of Athens, in the Mithridatic war, when Cicero, then 
a young man, attended diligently to his instructions. Brut. 89 ; Plut. 
Cic. c. 3. He sometimes gave instructions in rhetoric, sometimes in 
philosophy, as appears from Tusc. Disp. ii. 3. Henrichsen, 



C. XXX.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 36o 

and reason of it; as if it is asked, ^ Why do the most learned 
men differ upon points of the greatest importance V or as to 
the possible changes in anything ; as if it is disputed, ' Whe- 
ther virtue can die in men, or whether it be convertible into 
vice?' With regard to definition, disputes arise, either when 
the question is, '' What is impressed, as it were, on the com- 
mon understanding f as if it be considered, ' Whether that be 
right which is advantageous to the greater number"?' or 
when it is inquired, ' What is the peculiar property of any 
character?' as, 'Whether to speak elegantly be peculiar to 
the orator, or whether any one else can do so ? ' or when 
a thing is distributed into parts ; as if the question be, ' How 
many kinds of desirable things there are?' and, ^Whether 
there be three, those of the body, those of the mind, and 
external things V or when it is described what is the form or, 
as it were, natural characteristic of any person; as if it be 
inquired, ' What is the exact representation of an avaricious, 
a seditious, or a vain-glorious man?' Of the consequential, 
two principal kinds of questions are proposed; for the ques- 
tion is either simple, as if it be disputed, ' Whether glory be 
desirable ? ' or comparative, ' Whether praise or wealth is 
more to be coveted ? ' But of such simple questions there are 
three sorts, as to things that are to be desired or avoided; 
as, ^ Whether honours are desirable V ' Whether poverty is to 
be avoided V as to right and wrong; as, 'Whether it be right 
to revenge injuries, even those of relations?' as to honour 
and ignominy ; as, ' Whether it be honourable to suffer death 
for the sake of glory ?' Of the comparative also there are two 
sorts : one, when the question is whether things are the same, 
or there be any difference betwixt them; as betwixt /ear and 
reverence, a king and a tyrant, a flatterer and a friend; the 
other, when the inquiry is, ' Which of two things is pre- 
ferable?' as, ' Whether wise men are led by the approbation 
of the most worthy, or by popular applause V Thus are the 
controversies which relate to knowledge described, for the 
most part, by men of the greatest learning. 

XXX. " But those which relate to action, either concern 
controverted points of moral duty, under which head it may 
be inquired, ' What is right and to be practised ; ' of which 
head the whole train of virtues and of vices is the subject- 
matter ; or refer to the excitement, or alleviation, or removal 



3G6 DE oratorb; or, [b. hi. 

of some emotion of the mind. Under this head are included 
exhortation, reproof, consolation, compassion, and all that 
either gives impulse to any emotion of the mind, or, if it so 
happen, mitigates it. These kinds, then, and modes of all 
questions being explained, it is of no consequence if the 
partition of Antonius in any particular disagrees with my 
division ; for there are the same parts in both our disserta- 
tions, though divided and distributed by me a little otherwise 
than by him. Now I will proceed to the sequel, and recall ■ 
myself to my appointed task and business. For the argu- 
ments for every kind of question are to be drawn from 
those common places which Antonius enumerated ; but some 
common places will be more adapted to some kinds than to 
others; concerning which there is no necessity for me to 
speak, not because it is a matter of any great length, but of 
sufficient perspicuity. 

'' Those speeches, then, are the most ornate which spread 
over the widest field, and, from some private and single 
question, apply and direct themselves to show the nature of 
such questioDs in general, so that the audience, from under- 
standing its nature, and kind, and whole bearing, may deter- 
mine as to particular individuals, and as to all suits criminal 
and civil. Antonius has encouraged you, young men, to per- 
severance in this exercise, and intimated that you were to be 
conducted by degrees from small and confined questions to 
all the power and varieties of argument. Such qualifications 
are not to be gained from a few small treatises, as they have 
imagined who have written on the art of speaking; nor are 
they work merely for a Tusculan villa, or for a morning 
walk and afternoon sitting, such as these of ours; for we 
have not only to point and fashion the tongue, but have to 
store the mind with the sweetness, abundance, and variety of 
most important and numerous subjects. 

XXXI. ^' For ours is the possession (if we are indeed 
orators, if we are to be consulted as persons of authority and 
leaders in the civil contests and perils of the citizens and in 
public councils), ours, I say, is the entire possession of all that 
wisdom and learning, upon which, as if it were vacant and 
had fallen in to them, men abounding in leisure have seized, 
taking advantage of us, and either speak of the orator with 
ridicule and sarcasm, as Socrates in the Gorgias, or write 



C. XXXII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 367 

something on the art of oratory in a few little treatises, and 
call them books on rhetoric ; as if all those things did not 
equally concern the orator, which are taught by the same 
philosophers on justice, on the duties of life, on the establish- 
ment and administration of civil government, and on the 
whole systems of moral and even natural philosophy. These 
matters, since we cannot get them elsewhere, we must now 
borrow from those very persons by whom we have been pil- 
laged; so that we apply them to the knowledge of civil 
affairs, to which they belong, and have a regard ; nor let us 
(as I observed before) consume all our lives in this kind 
of learning, but, when we have discovered the fountains, 
(which he who does not find out immediately will never find 
at all,) let us draw from them as much as occasion may re- 
quire, as often as we need. For neither is there so sharp 
a discernment in the nature and understanding of man, that 
any one can descry things of such importance, unless they 
are pointed out ; nor yet is there so much obscurity in the 
things, that a man of penetrating genius cannot obtain an 
insight into them, if he only direct his view towards them. 
As the orator therefore has liberty to expatiate in so large 
and immense a field, and, wherever he stops, can stand upon 
• his own territory, all the furniture and embellishments of 
eloquence readily offer themselves to him. For copiousness 
of matter produces copiousness of language; and, if there 
be an inherent dignity in the subjects on which he speaks, 
there must be, from the nature of the thing, a certain 
splendour in his expression. If the speaker or writer has but 
been liberally instructed in the learning proper for youth, 
and has an ardent attachment to study, and is assisted By 
natural endowments, and exercised in those indefinite ques- 
tions on general subjects, and has chosen, at the same time, 
the most elegant writers and speakers to study and imitate, 
he will never, be assured, need instruction from such pre- 
ceptors how to compose or embellish his language ; so readily, 
in an abundance of matter, will nature herself, if she be but 
stimulated, fall without any guide into all the art of adorning 
eloquence.*' 

XXXII. Catulus here observed, '^ Ye immortal gods, what 
an infinite variety, force, and extent of matter have you, 
Crassus, embraced, and from how narrow a circle have you 



3C8 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. III. 

ventured to lead forth the orator, and to place him in the 
domains of his ancestors! For we have understood that 
those ancient masters and authors of the art of speaking 
considered no kind of disputation to be foreign to their pro- 
fession, but were always exercising themselves in every branch 
of oratory. Of which number was Hippias of Elis, who, 
when he came to Olympia, at the time of the vast concourse 
at the games celebrated every fifth year, boasted, in the 
hearing of almost all Greece, that there w^as no subject in 
any art or science of which he was ignorant; as he under- 
stood not only those arts in which all liberal and polite 
learning is comprised, geometry, music, grammar, and poetry, 
and whatever is said on the natures of things, the moral 
duties of men, and the science of government, but that he 
had himself made, with his own hand, the ring which he 
wore, and the cloak and shoes which he had on.^ He indeed 
went a little too far; but, even from his example, we may 
easily conjecture how much knowledge those very orators 
desired to gain in the most noble arts, when they did not 
shrink from learning even the more humble. Why need I 
allude to Prodicus of Chios, Thrasymachus of Chalcedon, or 
Protagoras of Abdera ? every one of whom in those days dis- 
puted and wrote much even on the nature of things. Even 
Gorgias the Leontine himself, under whose advocacy (as 
Plato represented) the orator yielded to the philosopher;^ who 
was either never defeated in argument by Socrates, (and then 
the Dialogue of Plato is wholly fictitious,) or, if he was so de- 
feated, it was because Socrates was the more eloquent and 
convincing, or, as you term it, the more powerful and better 
orator; — but this Gorgias, in that very book of Plato, ofiers 
to speak most copiously on any subject whatever, that could 
be brought under discussion or inquiry; and he was the first 
of all men that ventured to demand, in a large assembly, on 
what subject any one desired to hear him speak; and to 
whom such honours were paid in Greece, that to him alone, 
of all great men, a statue was erected at Delphi, not gilded, 
but of solid gold. Those whom I have named, and many 

1 See Plato, Hipp. Min. p. 231 G. 

^ Gorgias, in the Dialogue of Plato, undertakes the defence of 
oratory against Socrates, whom Plato represents as maintaining the 
dignity of philosophy. Gorgias is vanquished by Socrates. Proust. 



C. XXXIII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 369 

other most consummate masters in the art of speaking, 
flourished at the same time; from whose examples it may 
be understood, that the truth is really such as you, Crassus, 
have stated, and that the name of the orator was distin- 
guished among the ancients in Greece in a more extensive 
sense, and with greater honour than among ourselves. I am 
therefore the more in doubt whether I should attribute 
a greater degree of praise to you, or of blame to the Greeks ; 
since you, born under a different language and manners, in 
the busiest of cities, occupied either with almost all the private 
causes of the people, or with the government of the world 
and the direction of the mightiest of empires, have mastered 
such numbers of subjects, and acquired so extensive a know- 
ledge, and have united all this with the science and practice 
of one who is of authority in the republic by his counsels 
and eloquence ; whilst they, born in an atmosphere of learning, 
ardently attached to such studies, but dissolved in idleness, 
have not only made no acquisitions, but have not even 
preserved as their own that which was left and consigned to 
them." 

XXXIII. Crassus then said, " Not only in this particular, 
Catulus, but in many others, the grandeur of the sciences 
has been diminished by the distribution and separation of 
their parts. Do you imagine, that when the famous Hippo- ^ 
crates of Cos flourished, there were then some of the medical 
faculty who cured diseases, others wounds, and a third class 
the eyes? Do you suppose that geometry under Euclid and 
! Archimedes, that music under Damon and Aristoxenus, that 
1 grammar itself when Aristophanes and Callimachus treated 
of it, were so divided into parts, that no one comprehended 
j the universal system of any of those sciences, but different 
! persons selected different parts on which they meant to 
bestow their labour? I have, indeed, often heard from my 
father and father-in-law, that even our own countrymen, who 
were ambitious to excel in renown for wisdom, were wont to 
comprehend all the objects of knowledge which this city had 
then learned. They mentioned, as an instance of this, Sextus 
iElius; and we ourselves have seen Manius Manilius walking 
across the forum ; a signal that he who did so, gave all the 
citizens liberty to consult him upon any subject; and to such 
persons, when thus walking or sitting at home upon their seats 

B B 



370 DB ORATOKB ; OR, [b. III. 

of ceremony, all people had free access, not only to consult 
them upon points of civil law, but even upon the settlement 
of a daughter in marriage, the purchase of an estate, or the 
cultivation of a farm, and indeed upon any employment or 
business whatsoever. Such was the wisdom of the well- 
known elder Publius Crassus, such that of Titus Coruncanius, 
such that of the great-grandfather of Scipio, my son-in-law, a 
person of great judgment; all of whom were supreme pon- 
tiffs, so that they were consulted upon all affairs, divine 
and human ; and* the same men gave their counsel and dis- 
charged their duty in the senate, before the people, and in 
the private causes of their friends, in civil and military 
service, both at home and abroad. What was deficient in 
Marcus Cato, except the modern polish of foreign and ad- 
ventitious learning? Did he, because he was versed in the 
civil law, forbear from pleading causes'? or, because he could 
speak, neglect the study of jurisprudence? He laboured in 
both these kinds of learning, and succeeded in both. Was 
he, by the popularity which he acquired by attending to the 
business of private persons, rendered more tardy in the 
public service of the state? No man spoke with more 
courage before the people, none was ever a better senator; 
he was at the same time a most excellent commander-in- 
chief; and indeed nothing in those days could possibly be 
known or learned in this city which he did not investigate 
and thoroughly understand, and on which he did not also 
write. Now, on the contrary, men generally come to assume 
offices and the duties of public administration unarmed and 
defenceless; prepared with no science, nor any knowledge of 
business. But if any one happen to excel the multitude, he 
is elevated with pride by the possession of any single talent, 
as military courage, or a little experience in war, (which 
indeed has now fallen into decay,^) or a knowledge of the 
law, (not of the whole law, for nobody studies the pontifical 
law, which is annexed to civil jurisprudence,^) or eloquence, 

^ For, except Metellus Numidicus and Marius, no one in those days 
had gained any great reputation by his conduct in the field. 

2 Quod est conjunctum. That is, "conjunctum cum jure civili.** 
Proust. What Cicero says here is somewhat at variance with what he 
says, De Legg. ii. 19, where he shows, at some length, that only a small 
part of the civil law is necessary to be combined with the knowledge of 
the pontifical law. EUendt. 



C. XXXIV.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 371 

■ (which they imagine to consist in declamation and a torrent 
^ of words.) while none have any notion of the alhance and 
' affinity that connects all the liberal arts and sciences, and 
even the virtues themselves. 

"I XXX iV. " But to direct my remarks to the Greeks, (whom 
iwe cannot omit in a dissertation of this nature; for as exam- 
ples of virtue are to be sought among our own countrymen, 
so examples of learning are to be derived from them;) seven 
are said to have lived at one time, who were esteemed and 
denominated wise men. All these, except Thales of Miletus, 
' had the government of their respective cities. Whose learning 
is reported, at the same period, to have been greater, or 
whose eloquence to have received more ornament from 
literature, than that of Pisislratus ? who is said to have been 
the first that arranged the books of Homer as we now have 
them, when they were previously confused. He was not 
indeed of any great service to the community, but was 
eminent for eloquence, at the same time that he excelled in 
erudition and liberal knowledge. What was the character of 
Pericles 1 — of whose power in speaking we have heard, that 
when he spoke for the good of his countiy against the incli- 
nations of the Athenians, that very severity with which he 
contradicted the favourites of the people, became popular 
and agreeable to all men ; and on whose lips the old 
comic poets declared, (even when they satirized him, as was 
then lawful to be done at Athens,) that the graces of per- 
suasion dwelt, and that there was such mighty energy in him 
that he left, as it were, certain stings in the minds of those 
!who listened to him. Yet no declaimer had taught him 
to bawl for hours by the water-clock, but, as we have it from 
tradition, the famous Anaxagoras of Clazomense, a man emi- 
nent in all the most valuable sciences, had instructed him. 
He, accordingly, excelling as he did in learning, judgment, 
md eloquence, presided at Athens forty years together over 
3ivil and military affairs. What was the character of Critias, 
>r of Alcibiades ? They were not indeed useful members of 
lie state in which they lived, but were certainly men of 
earning and eloquence ; and were they not improved by con- 
versation with Socrates'? Who instructed Dion of Syracuse 
n every branch of learning 1 Was it not Plato ? The same 
llustrious philosopher, too, who formed him not to oratory 

bb2 



372 DE ORATORE j OR, [b. Ill, 

only, but to courage and virtue, impelled, equipped, and 
armed him to deliver his country. Did Plato, then, instruct 
Dion in sciences different from those in which Tsocrates 
formed the renowned Timotheus the son of Conon the 
eminent general, and himself a most excellent commander, 
and a man of extensive learning? Or from those in which 
Lysis the Pythagorean trained Epaminondas of Thebes, who 
perhaps was the most remarkable man of all Gieece? Or 
from those which Xenophon taught Agesilaus, or Archytas 
of Tarentum Philolaus, or Pythagoras himself all that old 
province of Italy which was formerly called Great Greece? 
XXXY. I do not imagine that they were different ; for I see 
that one and the same course of study comprised all those 
branches of knowledge which were esteemed necessary for 
a man of learning, and one who wished to become eminent 
in civil administration ; and that they who had received this 
knowledge, if they had sufficient powers for speaking in 
public, and devoted themselves, without any impediment 
from nature, to oratory, became distinguished for eloquence. 
Aristotle himself, accordingly, when he saw Isocrates grow 
remarkable for the number and quality of his scholars, [be- 
cause he himself had diverted his lectures from forensic and 
civil causes to mere elegance of language,^] changed on a 
sudden almost his whole system of teaching, and quoted a 
verse from the tragedy of Philoctetes^ with a little alteration; 
for the hero said, that It was disgraceful for him to he silent 
while he allowed barbarians to speah; but Aristotle said that 
it was disgraceful for him to be silent while he allowed Isocrates 
to speah He therefore adorned and illustrated all philoso- 
phical learning, and associated the knowledge of things with 
practice in speaking. Nor did this escape the knowledge of 
that very sagacious monarch Philip, who sent for him as 
a tutor for his son Alexander, that he might acquire from the 
same teacher instructions at once in conduct and in language. 
Now, if any one desires either to call that philosopher, who 
instructs us fully in things and words, an orator, he may do 

1 The words in brackets, says EUendt, are certainly spurious, for they 
could not possibly have been written by Cicero. In the original, quod 
ipse, &c., ipse necessarily refers to Aristotle, of whom what is here said 
could never have been true. 

2 The Philoctetes of Euripides, as is generally supposed. 



C. XXXVI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 373 

SO without opposition from me ; or if he prefer to call that 
orator, of whom I speak as having wisdom lanited with 
eloquence, sl philosopher, I shall make no objection, provided 
it be allowed that neither his inability to speak, who under- 
stands his subject but cannot set it forth in words, nor his 
ignorance, to whom matter is wanting though words abound, 
can merit commendation ; and if I had to choose one of the 
two, I should prefer uneloquent good sense to loquacious folly. 
But if it be inquired which is the more eminent excellence, 
the palm is to be given to the learned orator ; and if they 
allow the same person to be a philosopher, there is an end of 
controversy ; but if they distinguish them, they will acknow- 
ledge their inferiority in this respect, that all their knowledge 
is inherent in the complete orator; but in the knowledge of 
the philosophers eloquence is not necessarily inherent ; which, 
though it may be undervalued by them, must of necessity be 
thought to give a finishing grace to their sciences." When 
Crassus had spoken thus, he made a pause for a while, and 
the rest kept silence. 

XXX YI. Cotta then observed, '^ I cannot indeed complain, 
Crassus, that you seem to me to have given a dissertation 
upon a different subject from that on which you had under- 
taken to speak ; for you have contributed to our conversation 
more than was either laid upon you by us, or given notice 
of by yourself But certainly it was the part that belonged 
to you, to speak upon the embellishments of language, and 
you had already entered upon it, and distributed the whole 
excellence of eloquence into four parts; and, when you had 
spoken upon the first two, as we indeed thought suffi- 
ciently, but, as you said yourself, cursorily and slightly, you 
had two others left : how we should speak, first, elegantly, 
and next, aptly. But when you were proceeding to these 
particulars, the tide, as it were, of your genius suddenly 
hurried you to a distance from land, and carried you out 
into the deep, almost beyond the view of us all ; for, em- 
bracing all knowledge of everything, you did not indeed 
teach it us, (for that was impossible in so short a space of 
time,) but,— I know not what improvement you may have 
made in the rest of the company, — as for myself, you 
have carried me altogether into the heart of the academy, 
in regard to which I could wish that that were true which 



374 DE OEATORE j OR, [B. III. 

you have often asserted, that it is not necessary to consume 
our lives in it, but that he may see everything in it who only 
turns his eyes towards it : but even if the view be somewhat 
obscure, or I should be extraordinarily dull, I shall assuredly 
never rest, or yield to fatigue, until I understand their 
doubtful ways and arts of disputing for and against every 
question." Csesar then said, " One thing in your remarks, 
Crassus, struck me very much, that you said that he who did 
not learn anything soon, could never thoroughly learn it at 
all ; so that I can have no difficulty in making the trial, and 
either immediately understanding what you extolled to the 
skies in your observations, or, if I cannot do so, losing no 
time, as I may remain content with what I have already 
acquired." Here Sulpicius observed, ^^ I, indeed, Crassus, 
neither desire any acquaintance with your Aristotle, nor 
Carneades, nor any of the philosophers ; you may either 
imagine that I despair of being able to acquire their know- 
ledge, or that, as is really the case, I despise it. The ordinary 
knowledge of common affairs, and such as are litigated in the 
forum, is great enough for me, for attaining that degree of 
eloquence which is my object; and even in that narrow circle 
of science I am ignorant of a multitude of things, which I 
begin to study, whenever any cause in which I am to speak 
requires them. If, therefore, you are not now fatigued, and 
if we are not troublesome to you, revert to those particulars 
which contribute to the merit and splendour of language; 
particulars which I desired to hear from you, not to make 
me despair that I can ever possibly attain eloquence, but to 
make some addition to my stock of learning." 

XXXVII. " You require- of me," said Crassus, " to speak 
on matters which are very well known, and with which you, 
Sulpicius, are not unacquainted ; for what rhetorician has not 
treated of this subject, has not given instructions on it, has 
not even left something about it in writing 1 But I will com- 
ply with your request, and briefly explain to you at least such 
points as are known to me ; but I shall still think that you 
ought to refer to those who are the authors and inventors of 
these minute precepts. All speech, then, is formed of words, 
which we must first consider singly, then in composition; for 
there is one merit of language which lies in single words, 
another which is produced by words joined and compounded. 



C. XXXVIII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 375 

We shall therefore either use such words as are the proper and 
fixed names as it were of things, and apparently almost born 
at the same time with the things themselves ; or such as are 
metaphorical, and placed as it were in a situation foreign to 
i them ; or such as we invent and make ourselves. In regard 
then to words taken in their own proper sense, it is a merit 
in the orator to avoid mean and obsolete ones, and to use 
Buch as are choice and ornamental; such as have in them 
some fulness and force of sound. But in this kind oi 'proper 
words, selection is necessary, which must be decided in some 
measure by the judgment of the ear; in which point the 
mere habit of speaking well is of great effect. Even what 
is vulgarly said of orators by the illiterate multitude, He 
uses proper words, or Such a one uses improper words, is not 
the result of any acquired skill, but is a judgment arising 
from a natural sense of what is right ; in which respect it is 
( no great merit to avoid a fault, (though it is of great im- 
portance to do so,) yet this is the ground- work, as it were, 
and foundation of the whole, namely, the use and command 
of proper words. But the superstructure which the orator 
himself is to raise upon this, and in which he is to display 
his art, appears to be a matter for us to examine and 
* illustrate. 

I XXXYIII. " There are three qualities, then, in a simple 

j word, which the orator may employ to illustrate and adorn 

[ his language ; he may choose either an unusual word, or one 

I that is new or metaphorical. Unusual words are generally 

of ancient date and fashion, and such as have been long out 

\ of use in daily conversation; these are allowed more freely 

i to poetical licence than to ours; yet a poetical word gives 

occasionally dignity also to oratory; nor would I shrink from 

I saying, with Ccelius, Qua tempestate Poenus in Italiam venit, 

' At the season when the Carthaginian came into Italy :' nor 

\ proles, 'progeny;' nor suholes, 'offspring;' nor effari, 'to 

utter;' nor nuncupari, 'to declare;' nor, as you are in the 

habit of saying, Catulus, non rehar, 'I did not deem;' nor 

non opinabar, 'I did not opine;' nor many others, from 

which, if properly introduced, a speech assumes an air of 

greater grandeur. JVew words are such as are produced and 

; formed by the speaker; either by joining words together, as 

these. 



376 DE ORATORE • OR, [b. HI. 

Turn pavor sapientiam omnem mi exanimato expectorai, 
Then fear expels all wisdom from tlie breast 
Of me astonished ; 
or, 

Num non vis hujus me versutiloquas malitias ? 
Would you not have me dread his cunning malice ? 

for you see that versutiloquas and expectorai are words not 
newly produced, but merely formed by composition. But 
words are often invented, without composition, as the ex- 
pression of Ennius,^ Bii genitales, ' the genial gods ; ' or hac- 
carum uhertate incurviscere, ' to bend down with the fertile 
crop of berries.' 

" The third mode, that of using words in a metaphorical 
sense, is widely prevalent, a mode of which necessity was the 
parent, compelled by the sterility and narrowness of language ; 
but afterwards delight and pleasure made it frequent ; for as 
a dress was first adopted for the sake of keeping off the cold, 
but in process of time began to be made an ornament of the 
body, and an emblem of dignity, so the metaphorical use of 
words was originally invented on account of their paucity, but 
became common from the delight which it afforded. For 
even the countrymen say, gemmare vites, that ' the vines are 
budding;' luxuriem esse in kerhis, that ^ there is a luxuriancy 
in the grass ;' and loetas segetes, that ' there is a bountiful 
crop;' for when that which can scarcely be signified by its 
proper word is expressed by one used in a metaphorical sense, 
the similitude taken from that which we indicate by a foreign 
term gives clearness to that which we wish to be understood. 
These metaphors, therefore, are a species of borrowing, as you 
take from something else that which you have not of your own. 
Those have a greater degree of boldness which do not show 
poverty, but bring some accession of splendour to our lan- 
guage. But why should I specify to you either the modes of 
their production or their various kinds ? 

XXXIX. '^ A metaphor is a brief similitude contracted into 
a single word ; which word being put in the place of another, 

^ All the editions retain ille senius, though universally acknowledged 
to be corrupt. The conjecture of Turnebus, ille Bnnius, has found mr)st 
favour ; that of Orellius, illud Ennii, is approved by EUendt. That the 
words dt genitales were used by Ennius appears from Servius on Virg. 
^n. vi. 764. 



C. XL.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 377 

as if it were in its own place, conveys, if the resemblance be 
acknowledged, delight; if there is no resemblance, it is con- 
demned. But such words should be metaphorically used as 
may make the subject clearer; as all these :^ 

Inhorrescit mare, 
Tenehrce conduplicantur, noctisque et nirabum occcBcat nigror, 
Flamma inter nuhes coruscat, coslum tonitru contremit, 
Grando mixta imhri largifluo subita prcecipitans cadit ; 
Undique omnes venti erumpunt, scevi existunt turbines ; 
Fervit cestu pelagus. 

The sea begins to shudder, 
Darkness is doubled ; and the black of night 
And of the tempest thickens ; fire gleams vivid 
' Amid the clouds ; the heavens with thunder shake ; 
Hail mixed with copious rain sudden descends 
Precipitate ; from all sides every blast 
Breaks forth : fierce whirlwinds gather, and the flood 
Boils with fresh tumult. 

Here almost everything is expressed in words metaphori- 
cally adapted from something similar, that the description 
may be heightened. Or metaphors are employed that the 
whole nature of any action or design may be more signi- 
ficantly expressed; as in the case of him who indicates, by 
two metaphorical words, that another person was designedly 
obscure, in order that what he intended might not be under- 
stood, 

Quandoquidem is se circumvestit dictis, scepit seduld, 
Since thus he clothes himself around with words, 
And hedges constantly. 

" Sometimes, also, brevity is the object attained by meta- 
phor; as, Si telum manu fugit, ^If from his hand the javelin 
fled.' The throwing of a missile weapon unawares could not be 
described with more brevity in the proper words than it is 
signified by one used metaphorically. On this head, it often 
appears to me wonderful why all men are more delighted 
with words used in a metaphorical or foreign sense than in 
their own proper and natural signification. XL. For if a 
thing has not a name of its own, and a term peculiar to it, — 
as the pes, or ^ hawser,' in a ship ; nexum, a ' bond,' which is 
a ceremony performed with scales f divortium, a ^ divorce,' with 

^ From Pacuvius. See Cic. Divin. i. 14. 

2 See Smith's Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Ant., art. Nexwm, 



378 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. III. 

reference to a wife/ — necessity compels you to borrow from 
another what you have not yourself; but, even in the greatest 
abundance of proper words, men are much more charmed 
with such as are uncommon, if they are used metaphori- 
cally with judgment. This happens, I imagine, either because 
it is some manifestation of wit to jump over such expres- 
sions as lie before you, and catch at others from a greater 
distance; or because he who listens is led another way in 
thought, and yet does not wander from the subject, which is 
a very great pleasure ; or because a subject, and entire com- 
parison, is despatched in a single word ; or because every 
metaphor that is adopted with judgment, is directed imme- 
diately to our senses, and principally to the sense of sight, 
which is the keenest of them all. For such expressions as 
the odour of urbanity, the softness of humanity, the murmur 
of the sea, and sweetness of language, are derived from the 
other senses ; but those which relate to the sight are much 
more striking, for they place almost in the eye of the mind 
such objects as we cannot see and discern by the natural eyes. 
There is, indeed, nothing in universal nature, the proper name 
and term of which we may not use with regard to other 
matters; for whencesoever a simile may be drawn (and it 
may be drawn from anything), from thence a single word, 
which contains the resemblance, metaphorically applied, may 
give illustration to our language. In such metaphorical ex- 
pressions, dissimilitude is principally to be avoided ; as, 

Coeli ingentes fornices, 

The arch immense of heaven ; 

for though Ennius ^ is said to have brought a globe upon the 
stage, yet the semblance of an arch can never be inherent in 
the form of a globe. 

Vive, Ulixes, dum licet: 

Oculis jpostremum lumen radiatum rape :^ 

Live, live, Ulysses, while you may, and snatch, 
Snatch with thine eyes the last light shining on them. 



^ Bivortium, in its proper sense, denoted the separation of roads or 
waters. 

2 In his tragedy of Hecuba, ae is supposed by Hermann, ad Eurip 
Hec. p. 167. See Varro, L. L. v. p. 8. 

^ Supposed by Bothe, Trag. Lat. Fragm. p. 278, to be from the Niptri* 
of Pacuvius. See Cic. Qusest. Acad. ii. 28. 



C. XL!.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 379 

He did not say, cape, ' take,' nor pete, ^ seek.' for such ex- 
pressions might have implied delay, as of one hoping to live 
longer ; but rape, '• snatch,' a word which was peculiarly suit- 
able to what he had said before, dum licet, ^ while you may.' 

XLI. ^^ Care is next to be taken that the simile be not too 
far-fetched ; as, for ^ the Syrtis of his patrimony,' I should 
rather have said, ^ the rock ;' for ' the Charybdis of his posses- 
sions,' rather ' the gulf :' for the eyes of the mind are more 
easily directed to those objects which we have seen, than to 
those of which we have only heard. And since it is the 
greatest merit in a metaphorical word, that what is meta- 
phorical should strike the senses, all offensiveness is to be 
avoided in those objects to which the comparison must 
naturally draw the minds of the audience. T would not have 
it said that the republic was ' castrated ' by the death of 
Africanus ; I would not have Glaucia called ' the excrement 
of the senate ; ' for though there may be a resemblance, yet it 
is a depraved imagination in both cases that gives rise to 
such a comparison. I would not have the metaphor grander 
than the subject requires, as ^ a tempest of revelling;' nor 
meaner, as ' the revelling of the tempest.' I would not have 
the metaphorical be of a more confined sense than the proper 
and peculiar term would have been; as, 

Quidnam est, ohsecro, quid te adiri ahnutas ? ^ 
Why is it, prythee. that thou nodd'st us back 
From coming to thee ? 

Vetas, prohihes, ahsterres, ' forbid,' ^ hinder/ ' terrify/ had been 
better, because he had before said, 

Fly quickly hence, ^ 
Lest my contagion or my shadow fall 
On men of worth. 

Also, if you apprehend that the metaphor may appear too 
harsh, it may frequently be softened by prefixing a word or 
words to it ; as if, in old times, on the death of Marcus Cato, 
any one had said that the senate was left ' an orphan,' the ex- 
pression had been rather bold; but, ' so to speak, an orphan,' 
is somewhat milder; for a metaphor ought not to be too daring, 

1 From the Thyestes of Ennius. Cic. Tusc. iii. 12. 
^ Orellius's text has istim, which is considered to be the same aa 
istinc. See Victorius ad Cic. Ep. ad Div. vi 6. 



380 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. III. 

but of such a nature that it may appear to have been introduced 
into the place of another expression, not to have sprung into 
it ; to have come in by entreaty, and not by violence. And 
there is no mode of embellishment more effective as regards 
single words, nor any that throws a greater lustre upon lan- 
guage; for the ornament that flows from this figure does not 
consist merely in a single metaphorical word, but may be 
connected by a continuation of many, so that one thing may 
be expressed and another understood; as, 

Nor will I allow 
Myself again to strike the Grecian fleet 
On the same rock and instrument of ruin.* 
And this, 

You err, you err, for the strong reins of law 
Shall hold you back, exulting and confiding 
Too much in your own self, and make you bow 
Beneath the yoke of empire. 

Something being assumed as similar, the words which are 
proper to it are metaphorically transferred (as I termed it 
before) to another subject. 

XLII. '' This is a great ornament to language, but obscurity 
is to be avoided in it; for from this figure arise what are 
called eenigmas. Nor is this rule to be observed in single 
words only, but in phrases, that is, in a continuation of words. 
Nor have metonymy and hypallage^ their form from a single 
word, but from a phrase or sentence ; as, 

Grim Afric trembles with an awful tumult f 

where for the Africans is used Afric; not a word newly 
compounded, as in Mare saxifragis undis, ' The sea with its 
rock-breaking waves;' nor a metaphorical one, as, Mollitur 
mare, ' The sea is softened ;' but one proper name exchanged 
for another, for the sake of embellishment. Thus, ' Cease, Rome, 
thy foes to cherish,' and, * The spacious plains are witnesses.' 
This figure contributes exceedingly to the ornament of style, 
and is frequently to be used ; of which kind of expression these 
are examples : that the Mars, or fortune, of war is common ; 
and to say Ceres, for corn ; Bacchus, for wine ; Neptune, for 

* Whence this and the following quotation are taken is uncertain. 

2 Traductio atque immutatio. See Cic. Orat. 27 ; Quint, viii. 6 ; 
ix. 3 ; infra, c. 43, 54. 

3 From the Annals of Ennius. See Cic. Ep. ad Div. ix. 7 ; Orat. 27; 
Festus V. metonymia. 



aXLIII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 381 

the sea; the curia, or house, for the senate; the campus, for 
the comitia or elections ; the gown, for peace ; arms or weapons, 
for war. Under this figure, the virtues and vices are used for 
the persons in whom they are inherent : ' Luxury has broken 
into that house;' or, * whither avarice has penetrated;' or, 
^honesty has prevailed;' or, ^justice has triumphed.' You per- 
ceive the whole force of this kind of figure, when, dy the 
variation or change of a word, a thing is expressed more 
elegantly; and to this figure is closely allied another,^ which, 
though less ornamental, ought not to be unknown ; as when 
we would have the whole of a thing understood from a part ; 
as we say walls or roof for a whole building; or a part 
from the whole, as when we call one troop the cavalry of the 
Roman people; or when we signify the plural by the sin- 
gular, as, 

But still the Roman, though the affair has been 

Conducted well, is anxious in his heart f 

or when the singular is understood from the plural, 

We that were Rudians once are Romaris now ; 

or in whatever way, by this figure, the sense is to be under- 
stood, not as it is expressed, but as it is meant. 

XLIIL " We often also put one word catachrestically for 
another, not with that elegance, indeed, which there is in a 
metaphor; but, though this is done licentiously, if is some- 
times done inoffensively ; as when we say a great speech for a 
long one, a minute soul for a little one. 

" But have you perceived that those elegances which arise 
from the connexion of several metaphors, do not, as I ob- 
served,^ lie in one word, but in a series of words ? But all 
those modes of expression which, I said, lay in the change of 
a word, or are to be understood differently from what is 
expressed, are in some measure metaphorical. Hence it hap- 
pens, that all the virtue and merit of single words consists in 
three particulars : if a word be antique, but such, however, as 
usage will tolerate ; if it be formed hy composition, or newly 
invented, where regard is to be paid to the judgment of the 
ear and to custom; or if it be used metaphorically, peou- 

^ Synecdoche. 

^ This quotation and the following are from the Annals of Ennius. 

3 C. 41 



332 DB oratore; or, [b. hi. 

liar i ties which eminently distinguish and brighten language, 
as with so many stars. 

" The composition of words follows next, which principally 
requires attention to two things; first, collocation, and, next, 
a certain modulation and /orm. To collocation it belongs to 
compose and arrange the words in such a way that their 
junction may not be rough or gaping, but compact, as it were, 
and smooth; .in reference to which qualities of style, the poet 
Lucilius, who could do so most elegantly, has expressed him- 
self wittily and sportively in the character of my father- 
in-law '} 

How elegantly are his words arranged ! 
All like square stones inserted skilfully 
In pavements, with vermiculated emblems ! 

And after saying this in ridicule of Albucius, he does not 
refrain from touching on me : 

I've Crassus for a son-in-law, nor think 
Yourself more of an orator. 

What then ? this Crassus, of whose name you, Lucilius, make 
such free use, what does he attempt? The very same thing 
indeed as Scsevola wished, and as I would wish, but with some- 
what better effect than Albucius. But Lucilius spoke jestingly 
with regard to me, according to his custom. However, such 
an arrangement of words is to be observed, as that of which 
I w^as speaking ; such a one as may give a compactness and 
coherence to the language, and a smooth and equal flow ; this 
you will attain if you join the extremities of the antecedent 
words to the commencements of those that follow in such a 
manner that there be no rough clashing in the consonants, 
nor wide hiatus in the vowels. 

XLIY. '^ Next to diligent attention to this particular, follows 
modulation and harmonious structure of the words; a point, 
I fear^ that may seem puerile to our friend Catulus here. The 
ancients, however, imagined in prose a harmony almost like 
that of poetry ; that is, they thought that we ought to adopt 
a sort of numbers; for they wished that there should be 
short phrases in speeches, to allow us to recover, and not 
lose our breath ; and that they should be distinguished, not 
by the marks of transcribers, but according to the modulation 
^ Mucins Scsevola. He accused Albucius of extortion. 



C. XLV.J ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 383 

of the words and sentences;^ and this practice Isocrates is 
said to have been the first to introduce, that he might (as 
his scholar Naucrates writes) 'confine the rude manner of 
speaking among those of antiquity within certain numbers, 
to give pleasure and captivate the ear.' For musicians, who 
were also the poets of former ages, contrived these two things 
as the ministers of pleasure, verse, and song; that they 
might banish satiety from the sense of hearing by gratifica- 
tion, arising from the numbers of language and the modulation 
of notes. These two things, therefore, (I mean the musical 
management of the voice, and the harmonious structure of 
words,) should be transferred, they thought, as far as the 
strictness of prose will admit, from poetry to oratory. On 
this head it is remarkable, that if a verse is formed by the 
composition of words in prose, it is a fault ; and yet we wish 
such composition to have a harmonious cadence, roundness, 
and finish, like verse; nor is there any single quality, out 
of many, that more distinguishes a true orator from an un- 
skilful and ignorant speaker, than that he who is unpractised 
pours forth all he can without discrimination, and measures 
out the periods of his speech, not with art, but by the power 
of his breath; but the orator clothes his thoughts in such 
a manner as to comprise them in a flow of numbers, at once 
confined to measure, yet free from restraint ; for, after restrict- 
ing it to proper modulation and structure, he gives it an ease 
and freedom by a variety in the flow, so that the words are 
neither bound by strict laws, as those of verse, nor yet have 
such a degree of liberty as to wander without control. 

XLV. " In what manner, then, shall we pursue so important 
an object, so as to entertain hopes of being able to acquire 
this talent of speaking in harmonious numbers'? It is not 
a matter of so much difficulty as it is of necessity ; for there 
is nothing so pliant, nothing so flexible, nothing which will 
so easily follow w^hithersoever you incline to lead it, as lan- 
guage; out of which verses are composed; out of which all 
the variety of poetical numbers; out of which also prose oi 
various modulation and of many difierent kinds ; for there is 
not one set of words for common discourse, and another for 
oratorical debate; nor are they taken from one class for daily 
conversation, and from another for the stage and for display; 

^ Ellendt aptly refers to Cic. Orat. c. 68 ; Aristotle, Rhet. iii. 8. 6. 



384 DE ORATORE ; OR, [B. III. 

but, when we have made our selection from those that lie 
before us, we form and fashion them at our pleasure like the 
softest wax. According, therefore, as we ourselves are grave, 
or subtle, or hold a middle course between both, so the form 
of our language follows the nature of our thoughts, and is 
changed and varied to suit every method by which we delight 
the ear or move the passions of mankind. But as in most 
things, so in language, Nature herself has wonderfully con- 
trived, that what carries in it the greatest utility, should 
have at the same time either the most dignity, or, as 
it often happens, the most beauty. We perceive the very 
system of the universe and of nature to be constituted with 
a view to the safety and preservation of the whole; so that 
the firmament should be round, and the earth in the middle, 
and that it should be held in its place by its own nature and 
tendency;^ that the sun should go round, that it should 
approach to the winter sign,^ and thence gradually ascend to 
the opposite region; that the moon, by her advance and 
retreat, should receive the light of the sun ; and that the 
five planets should perform the same revolutions by different 
motions and courses. This order of things has such force, 
that, if there were the least alteration in it, they could not 
possibly subsist together; and such beauty, that no fairer 
appearance of nature could even be imagined. Turn your 
thoughts now to the shape and figure of man, or even that 
of other animals ; you will find no part of the body fashioned 
without some necessary use, and the whole frame perfected 
as it were by art, not by chance. XLYI. How is it with 
regard to trees, of which neither the trunk, nor the boughs, 
nor even the leaves, are formed otherwise than to maintain 
and preserve their own nature, yet in which there is no part 
that is not beautiful? Or let us turn from natural objects, 
and cast our eyes on those of art ; what is so necessary in 
a ship as the sides, the hold,^ the prow, the stern, the yards, 

^ Nutu. Compare Cic. De ITat. Deor. ii. 39. Ellendt thinks that 
by nutus is meant something similar to our centripetal force, 

2 Brumale signum. The tropic of Capricorn. De Nat. Deor. iii. 14. 

^ Cavernce. Some editions have carince, and Lambinus reads carina. 
If we retain caverncE, it is not easy to say exactly in what sense it should 
be taken. Servius, on Virgil, ^n. ii. 19, observes that the fustes curvi - 
navium, quibus extrinsecus fabulce affiguntur, were called cavernce ; but 
in this sense, as Ellendt observes, it is much the same with latera, 



I 



XLVir.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 385 

the sails, the masts? which yet have so much beauty in their 
appearance, that they seem to have been invented not for 
safety only, but also for the delight afforded by the spectacle. 
Pillars support temples and porticoes, and yet have not more 
of utility than of dignity. It was not regard to beauty, but 
necessity, that contrived the cupola of the Capitol, and other 
buildings ; for when a plan was contemplated by which the 
water might run off from each side of the roof, the dignity of 
the cupola was added to the utility of the temple ; but in 
such a manner, that should the Capitol be built in heaven, 
where no rain can fall, it would appear to have no dignity 
without the cupola. It happens likewise in all parts of lan- 
guage, that a certain agreeableness and grace are attendant 
on utility, and, I may say, on necessity ; for the stoppage of 
the breath, and the confined play of the lungs, introduced 
periods and the pointing of words. This invention gives such 
gratification, that, if unlimited powers of breath were granted 
to a person, yet we could not wish him to speak without 
stopping ; for the invention of stops is pleasing to the ears of 
mankind, and not only tolerable, but easy, to the lungs. 

XLYII. ^' The largest compass of a period, then, is that 
which can be rounded forth in one breath. This is the 
bound set by nature ; art has other limits ; for as there is 
a great variety of numbers, your favourite Aristotle, Catulus, 
inclines to banish from oratorical language the frequent use 
of the iambus and the trochee ; which, however, fall of them- 
selves naturally into our common discourse and conversation ; 
but the strokes of time^ in those numbers are remarkable, 
and the feet short. He therefore principally invites us to 
tlie heroic measure, [of the dactyl, the anapaest, and the 
spondee ;] ^ in which we may proceed with impunity two 

which precedes. Ellendt himself, therefore, inclines to take it in the 
sense of cavitas alvei, " hold " or " keel," which, as it is divided into 
parts, may, he thinks, be expressed in the plural number. 

^ Percussiones. The ictus metrici ; so called, because the musician, 
in beating time, struck the ground with his foot. In a senarius he 
struck the ground three times, once for every two feet ; whence there 
were said to be in such a verse three ictus or percussiones. But on pro- 
nouncing those syllables, at which the musician struck the ground, the 
actor raised his voice ; and hence ptrcussio was in Greek 6.pais, and the 
raised or accented syllables were said to be eu ^pcrei, the others being 
said to be in Q=(T€i. See Bentley de Metr. Terentian. init. Ernesti. 

2 Madvig and Ellendt justly regard the words in brackets as spu- 

C C 



^86 DE ORATORE ; OR, [b. III. 

feet only, or a little more, lest we plainly fall into verse, or 
the resemblance of verse ; 

Altos I smit gemi\nce quibus 

These three heroic feet fall in gracefully enough with the be- 
ginnings of continuations of words. But the pseon is most of 
all approved by Aristotle; it is of two kinds ;^ for it either , 
begins with a long syllable which three short syllables follow, 
as in these words, desmite, incipUe, comprlmite; or with a suc- 
cession of three short syllables, the last being produced and 
made long, as in these words, ddmiterdnt, sonipedes; and it 
is agreeable to the notions of that philosopher to commence 
w^ith the former pseon, and to conclude with the latter ; and 
this latter pseon is almost equal, not indeed in the number 
of the syllables, but by the measure of the ear, which is 
a more acute and certain method of judgment, to the cretic, 
which consists of a long, a short, and a long syllable ; as in 
this verse. 

Quid petdm prcesidi, aut exsequdr ? Quove nunc ? ^ 

With which kind of foot Fannius ^ began, Si, Qulrltes, Minds 
illius. This Aristotle thinks better adapted to conclusions 
of periods, which he wishes to be terminated generally by a 
syllable that is long. 

XLYIII. ^' But these numbers in oratory do not require 
such sharp-sighted care and diligence as that which must 
be used by poets, whom necessity compels, as do the very 
numbers and measures, so to include the words in versi- 
fication, as that no part may be, even by the least breath,^ 
shorter or longer than the metre absolutely demands. Prose 
has a more free scope, and is plainly, as it is called, soluta, 
unconfined, yet not so that it may fly off or wander without 

rious. I follow those critics also in reading Altce sunt gcmince quibusy 
though, as EUendt observes, Altce ought very likely to be Arce. Alices 
which is in most editions, made the passage utterly inexplicable, 
though Ernesti, Strebseus, and others did what they could to put some 
meaning into it. 

^ The first and fourth only are meant. 

2 C. 26 ; where Pearce observes that they are the words of Andro- 
mache in Ennius, according to Bentley on Tusc. Disp. iii. 19. 

^ Caius Fannius Strabo, who was consul a.u.c. 632. He left one 
speech against Caius Gracchus : Cic. Brut. c. 26. 

* Ne sjpiritu quidem minimo. 



a XLIX.] ON THE CHAjRACTER OF THE ORATOR. 387 

control, but may regulate itself without being absolutely in 
fetters ; for I agi'ee in this particular with Theophrastus, 
who thinks that style, at least such as is to a certain degree 
polished and well constructed,^ ought to be numerous, yet not: 
as in confinement, but at ease. For, as he suspects, from 
those feet of which the common hexameter verse is formed, 
grew forth afterwards the anapaestic, a longer kind of measure ; 
thence flowed the still more free and rich dithyramb, the 
members and feet of which, as the same writer observes, are 
diffused through all style, that is enriched with the distin- 
guishing ornaments of eloquence. And if that is numerous in 
all sounds and words, which gives certain strokes as it were, 
and which we can measure by equal intervals, this harmony 
of numbers, if it be free from sameness, will be justly con- 
sidered a merit in the oratorical style. Sinec if perpetual 
and ever-flowing loquacity, without any pauses, is to be 
thought rude and unpolished, what other reason is there 
why it should be disliked, except that Nature herself modu- 
lates the voice for the human ear? and this could not be the 
case unless numbers were inherent in the human voice. But 
in an uninterrupted continuation of sound there are no 
numbers ; distinction, and strokes at equal or often varied 
intervals, constitute numbers; which we may remark in 
the falling of drops of water, because they are distin- 
guished by intervals, but which we cannot observe in the 
rolling stream of a river. But as this unrestrained com- 
position of words ^ is more eligible and harmonious, if it be 
distinguished into parts and members, than if it be carried 
on without intermission, those members ought to be mea- 
sured by a certain rule of proportion; for if those at the 
end are shorter, the compass as it were of the words is made 
irregular; the compass,^ I say, for so the Greeks denominate 
these rounded divisions of style ; the subsequent clauses in 
a sentence, therefore, ought to be equal to the antecedent, the 
last to the first; or, which has a better and more pleasing 
effect, of a greater length. 

XLIX. '^ These precepts are given by those philosophers 

^ Facta. That is, carefully laboured. See Brut. c. 8. Ellendt 
^ Continuatio verhorum soluta. See above, near the beginning of thir 
chapter, oratio — vere soluta. 

^ Ambitus. The Greek word is irepjodos. See Orat. c. 61, 
c c 2 



388 DE oratore; or, [b.jii. 

to whom you, Catulus, have the greatest attachment; a re- 
mark which I the oftener make, that by referring to my 
authors, I may avoid the charge of impertinence." " Of 
what sort of impertinence T' said Catulus; "or what could 
be brought before us more elegant than this discussion of 
yours, or expressed more judiciously?" "But still I am 
afraid," said Crassus, " lest these matters should either 
appear to these youths^ too difficult for study, or lest, as 
they are not given in the common rules of instruction, I 
should appear to have an inclination that they should seem 
of more importance and difficulty than they really are." 
Catulus replied, " You are mistaken, Crassus, if you imagine 
that either I or any of the company expected from you 
those ordinary or vulgar precepts ; what you say is what we 
wished to be said ; and not so much indeed to be said, as to 
be 'said in the very manner m which you have said it; nor 
do I answer for myself only, but for all the rest, without the 
least hesitation." " And I," said Antonius, " have at length 
discovered such a one as, in the book which I wrote, I said 
that I had never found, a person of eloquence; but I never 
interrupted you, not even to pay you a compliment, for this 
reason, that no part of the short time allotted for your dis- 
course might be diminished by a single word of mine." 

"To this standard, then," proceeded Crassus, "is your 
style to be formed, as well by the practice of speaking, as 
by writing, which contributes a grace and refinement to other 
excellences, but to this in a more peculiar manner. Nor is 
this a matter of so much labour as it appears to be ; nor are 
our phrases to be governed by the rigid laws of the cul- 
tivators of numbers and music; and the only object for our 
endeavours is, that our sentences may not be loose or ram- 
bling, that they neither stop within too narrow a compass, 
nor run out too far ; that they be distinguished into clauses, 
and have well-rounded periods. Nor are you to use per- 
petually this fulness and as it were roundness of language, 
but a sentence is often to be interrupted by minuter clauses, 
which very clauses are still to be modulated by numbers. 
Nor let the pseon or heroic foot give you any alarm ; they 
will naturally come into your phrases ; they will, I say, offer 
themselves, and will answer without being called; only let it 
^ Cotta and Sulpicius. 



t 



] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 389 

be your care and practice, both in writing and speaking, that 
your sentences be concluded with verbs, and that the junction 
of those verbs with other words proceed with numbers that are 
long and free, especially the heroic feet, the first pseon, or 
the creticj but let the cadence be varied and diversified; 
for it is in the conclusion that sameness is chiefly remarked. 
And if these measures are observed at the beginning and at 
the conclusion of sentences, the intermediate numbers may be 
disregarded; only let the compass of your sentence not be 
shorter than the ear expects, nor longer than your strength 
and breath will allow. 

L. " But I think that the conclusions of periods ought to 
be studied more carefully than the former parts; because it 
is chiefly from these that the finish of style is judged; for in 
a verse, the commencement of it, the middle, and the ex- 
tremity are equally regarded ; and in whatever part it fails, it 
loses its force; but in a speech, few notice the beginnings, 
but almost all the closes, of the periods, which, as they are 
observable and best understood, should be varied, lest they be 
disapproved, either by the judgment of the understanding or 
by the satiety of the ear. For the two or three feet towards 
the conclusion are to be marked and noted, if the preceding 
members of the sentence were not extremely short and 
concise; and these last feet ought either to be trochees, or 
heroic feet, or those feet used alternately, or to consist of the 
latter pseon, of which Aristotle approves, or, what is equal to 
it, the cretic. An interchange of such feet will have these 
good effects, that the audience will not be tired by an offen- 
sive sameness, and that we shall not appear to make similar 
endings on purpose. But if the famous Antipater of Sidon,^ 
whom you, Catulus, very well remember, used to pour forth 
extempore hexameter and other verses, in various numbers 
and measures, and if practice had so much power in a man 
of great ability and memory, that whenever he turned his 
thoughts and inclinations upon verse, the words followed of 
course, how much more easily shall we attain this facility in 
oratory, when application and exercise are used ! 

^^ Nor let any one wonder how the illiterate part of an 
audience observe these things when they listen to a speech ; 

^ Some of whose epigrams are to be seen in the Greek Anthology. 
He flourished about 100 B.C. 



390 DE oratore; or, [b. hi. 

since, in all other things, as well as in this, the force of nature is 
great and extraordinary ; for all men, by a kind of tacit sense, 
without any art or reasoning, can form a j adgment of what is 
right and wrong in art and reasoning; and as they do this 
with regard to pictures, statues, and other works, for under- 
standing which they have less assistance from nature, so 
they display this faculty much more in criticising words, 
numbers, and sounds of language, because these powers are 
inherent in our common senses, nor has nature intended that 
any person should be utterly destitute of judgment in these 
particulars. All people are accordingly moved, not only by 
words artfully arranged, but also by numbers and the sounds 
of the voice. How few are those that understand the science 
of numbers and measures ! yet if in these the smallest offence 
be given by an actor, so that any sound is made too short by 
contraction, or too long by extension, whole theatres burst 
into exclamations. Does not the same thing also happen with 
regard to musical notes, that not only whole sets and bands 
of musicians are turned out by the multitude and the populace 
for varying one from another, but even single performers for 
playing out of tune ? 

LI. " It is wonderful, when there is a wide interval of dis- 
tinction betwixt the learned and illiterate in acting, how little 
difference there is in judging ;^ for art, being derived from 
nature, appears to have effected nothing at all if it does not 
move and delight nature. And there is nothing which so 
naturally affects our minds as numbers and the harmony of 
sounds, by which we are excited, and inflamed, and soothed, 
and thrown into a state of languor, and often moved to cheer- 
fulness or sorrow; the most exquisite power of which is best 
suited to poetry and music, and was not, as it seems to me, 
undervalued by our most learned monarch Numa and our 
ancestors, (as the stringed and wind instruments at the sacred 
banquets and the verses of the Salii sufficiently indicate,) but 
was most cultivated in ancient Greece; [concerning which 
subjects, and similar ones, I could wish that you had chosen 
to discourse, rather than about these puerile verbal meta- 
phors !] ^ But as the common people notice where there is 

^ See Cic. Brut. c. 49. 

2 The words in brackets are condemned as spurious by aU the recent 
editors. 



c. lil] on the character of the orator. 391 

anything faulty in a verse, so thqy are sensible of any lame- 
ness in our language; but they grant the poet no pardon; to 
us they show some indulgence; but all tacitly discern that 
what we have uttered has not its peculiar propriety and finish. 
The speakers of old, therefore, as we see some do at the present 
day, when they were unable to complete a circuit and, as it 
were, roundness of period, (for that is what we have recently 
begun, indeed, either to effect or attempt,) spoke in clauses 
consisting of three, or two words, or sometimes uttered only a 
single word at a time ; and yet in that infancy of our tongue 
they understood the natural gratification which the human 
ears required, and even studied that what they spoke should 
be expressed in correspondent phrases, and that they should 
take breath at equal intervals. 

LII. " I have now shown, as far as I could, what I deemed 
most conducive to the embellishment of language; for I have 
spoken of the merits of single words ; I have spoken of them 
in composition; I have spoken of the harmony of numbers 
and structure. But if you wish me to speak also of the form 
and, as it were, complexion of eloquence, there is one sort 
which has a fulness, but is free from tumour; one which is 
plain, but not without nerve and vigour ; and one which, par- 
ticipating of both these kinds, is commended for a certain 
middle quality. In each of these three forms there ought to 
be a peculiar complexion of beauty, not produced by the 
daubing of paint, but diffused throughout the system by the 
blood. Then, finally,^ this orator of ours is so to be finished 
as to his style and thoughts in general, that, as those who 
study fencing and poHte exercises, not only think it necessary 
to acquire a skill in parrying and striking, but also grace 
and elegance of motion, so he may use such words as are 
suited to elegant and graceful composition, and such thoughts 
as contribute to the impressiveness of language. Words and 
thoughts are formed in almost innumerable ways ; as is, I am 
sure, well known to you ; but betwixt the formation of words 
and that of thoughts there is this difference, that that of the 

' Turn denique. Ellendt incloses turn in brackets, and thinks that 
much of the language of the rest of the chapter is confused and in- 
correct. The words lU ii, qui in armorum tractatione versantur, which 
occur a Uttle below, and which are generally condemned, are not 
translated. 



392 DE oratore; or, [b. hi. 

words is destroyed if vou change them, that of the thoughts 
remains, whatever words you think proper to use. But I 
think that you ought to be reminded (although, indeed, you 
act agreeably to what I say) that you should not imagine 
there is anything else to be done by the orator, at least any- 
thing else to produce a striking and admirable effect, than 
to observe these three rules with regard to single words; to 
use frequently metaphorical ones, sometimes new ones, and 
rarely very old ones. 

" But with regard to continuous composition, when we 
have acquired that smoothness of junction and harmony of 
numbers which I have explained, our whole style of oratory 
is to be distinguished and frequently interspersed with bril- 
liant lights, as it were, of thoughts and of words. LIII. For 
the dwelling on a single circumstance has often a considerable 
effect; and a clear illustration and exhibition of matters to 
the eye of the audience, almost as if they were transacted 
before them. This has wonderful influence in giving a re- 
presentation of any affair, both to illustrate what is repre- 
sented, and to amplify it, so that the point which we amplify 
may appear to the audience to be really as great as the powers 
of our language can represent it. Opposed to this is rapid * 
transition over a thing, which may often be practised. There 
is also signification that more is to be understood than you 
have expressed ; distinct and concise brevity ; and extenuation^ 
and, what borders upon this, ridicule, not very different from 
that which was the object of Caesar's instructions ; and di- 
gression from the subject, and when gratification has thus 
been afforded, the return to the subject ought to be happy 
and elegant ; proposition of what you are about to say, transi- 
tion from what has been said, and retrogression; there is 
repetition; apt conclusion of reasoning; exaggeration, or sur- 
passing of the truth, for the sake of amplification or diminu- 
tion; interrogation^ and, akin to this, as it were, consultation 
or seeming inquiry^ followed by the delivery of your own 
opinion; and dissimulation, the humour of saying one thing 
and signifying another, which steals into the minds of men in 
a peculiar manner, and which is extremely pleasing when it is 
well managed, not in a vehement strain of language, but in 
a conversational style; also doubt; and distribution; and 
correction of yourself, either before or after j^ou have said 



C. LIV.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 393 

a thing, or when you repel anything from your self; there 
is also premunition, with regard to what you are going to 
prove ; there is the transference of hlame to another person ; 
there is communication, or consultation, as it were, with the 
audience before whom you are speaking ; imitation of manners 
and character, either with names of persons or without, which 
is a great ornament to a speech, and adapted to conciliate the 
feelings even in the utmost degree, and often also to rouse 
them j the introduction of fictitious characters, the most height- 
ened figure of exaggeration; there is description; falling into 
a wilful mistake; excitement of the audience to cheerfulness; 
anticipation; comparison and example, two figures which 
have a very great effect; division; interruption; contention;^ 
suppression; commendation; a certain freedom and even un- 
controlledness of language, for the purpose of exaggeration; 
anger; reproach; promise; deprecation; beseeching; slight devia- 
tion from your intended course, but not like digression, which 
I mentioned before ; expurgation; conciliation; attach; wishing; 
execration. Such are the figures with which thoughts give 
lustre to a speech. 

LIY. "■ Of words themselves, as of arms, there is a sort of 
threatening and attack for use, and also a management for 
grace. For the reiteration of words has sometimes a peculiar 
force, and sometimes elegance; as well as the variation or 
deflexion of a word from its common signification ; and the 
frequent repetition of the same word in the beginning, and 
recurrence to it at the end, of a period ; forcible emphasis on 
the same words; conjunction;"^ adjunction;^ progression ;^ a sort 
of distinction as to some word often used ; the recal of a word ; 
the use of words, also, which end similarly, or have similar 
cadences, or which balance one another, or which correspond 

^ Contentio. This is doubtless some species of comparison ; there is 
no allusion to it in the Orator. See ad Herenn. iv. 45. Ellendt. 

2 Concursio. The writer ad Herenn. iv. 14, calls this figure traductio ; 
the Greeks (rvfiTrXoKT]. Ellendt. 

^ Adjunctio. It appears to be that which Quintilian (ix. 3) calls 
(Tvj/€^€vyijL€uou, whcre several words are connected with the same verb. 
Ellendt. 

* Wh.s,t progressio is, no critic has been able to inform us, nor is there 
any notice of it in any other writer on rhetoric. I see no mode of 
explaining the passage, unless we take adjtmctio and progressio together, 
and suppose them to signify that the speech proceeds with several 
words in conjunction. Ellendt. 



394 DE ORATOREj OR, [b. III. 

to one another. There is also a certain gradation, a conver- 
sion,^ an elegant exaggeration of the sense of words; there is 
antithesis, asyndeton, declination,^ reprehension,^ exclamation, 
diminution; the use of the same word in different cases ; the 
referring of what is derived from many particulars to each 
particular singly ; reasoning subservient to your proposition, 
and reasoning suited to the order of distribution; concession; 
and again another kind of doubt ;^ the introduction of some- 
thing unexpected; enumeration; another correction;^ division; 
continuation; interruption; imagery; answering your own ques- 
tions; immutation;^ disjunction; order; relation; digression;'^ 
and circumscription. These are the figures, and others like 
these, or there may even be more, which adorn language by 
peculiarities in thought or structure of style." 

LY. " These remarks, Crassus," said Cotta, " I perceive 
that you have poured forth to us without any definitions or 
examples, because you imagined us acquainted with them." 
" I did not, indeed," said Crassus, " suppose that any of the 
things which I previously mentioned were new to you, but 
acted merely in obedience to the inclinations of the whole 
company. But in these particulars the sun yonder admo- 
nished me to use brevity, which, hastening to set, compelled 
me also to throw out these observations almost too hastily. 
But explanations, and even rules on this head, are common, 
though the application of them is most important, and the 
most difficult of anything in the whole study of eloquence. 

^ An antithetic position of words, as esse ut vivas, non vivere ut edas, 
Ellendt. 

2 Declinatio, Called avTiiiera^oK^ by Quintilian, ix. 3. 85. 

2 Eeprehensio. ^AfpopicrfJids or diopio-fids. Jul. Bufin. p. 207. Compare 
Quintil. ix. 2. 18 ; Em. p. 332. Ellendt. 

* How this kind of doubt differs from that which is mentioned in the 
preceding chapter, among the figures of thought, it is not easy to say. 
Ellendt. 

^ Correctio verbi. Different from that which is mentioned above, in 
the middle of c. 53. Ellendt. 

^ Called dXXotcaaLS by Quintilian, ix. 3. 92. Ellendt. 

7 Digression has been twice mentioned before. Strebseus supposes it 
to be similar to {x^rd^affis or dTroffrporpij. I have no doubt that the 
word ought to be ejected. Circumscription Quintilian himself could 
not understand, and has excluded it from his catalogue of figures 
(ix. 3. 91). Ellendt. Most of the figures enumerated in this chapter 
are illustrated by the writer ad Herennium, b. iv., and by Quintilian, 
b. ix. 



0. LVI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 395 

" Since, then, all the points which relate to all the orna- 
mental parts of oratory are, if not illustrated, at least pointed 
out, let us now consider what is meant by propriety, that is, 
what is most becoming, in oratory. It is, however, clear that 
no single kind of style can be adapted to every cause, or every 
audience, or every person, or every occasion. For capital 
causes require one style of speaking, private and inferior 
causes another; deliberations require one kind of oratory, 
panegyric another, judicial proceedings another, common con- 
versation another, consolation another, reproof another, dis- 
putation another, historical narrative another. It is of conse- 
quence also to consider who form the audience, whether the 
senate, or the people, or the judges; whether it is a large or a 
small assembly, or a single person, and of what character; it 
ought to be taken into account, too, who the speakers them- 
selves are, of what age, rank, and authority; and the time 
also, whether it be one of peace or war, of hurry or leisure. 
On this head, therefore, no direction seems possible to be 
given but this, that we adopt a character of style, fuller, 
plainer, or middling,^ suited to the subject on which we are to 
speak ; the same ornaments we may use almost constantly, but 
sometimes in a higher, sometimes in a lower strain; and it is 
the part of art and nature to be able to do what is becoming 
on every occasion ; to Tcnow what is becoming, and when, is an 
aifair of judgment. 

LYI. '^ But all these parts of oratory succeed according as 
they are delivered. Delivery, I say, has the sole and supreme 
power in oratory ; without it, a speaker of the highest mental 
capacity can be held in no esteem; while one of moderate 
abilities, with this qualification, may surpass even those of 
the highest talent. To this Demosthenes is said to have 
assigned the first place, when he was asked what was the chief 
requisite in eloquence; to this the second, and to this the 
third. For this reason, I am wont the more to admire what 
was said by ^schines, who, when he had retired from Athens, 
on account of the disgrace of having lost his cause, and 
betaken himself to Rhodes, is reported to have read, at the 
entreaty of the Rhodians, that excellent oration which he had 
spoken against Ctesiphon, in opposition to Demosthenes; and 
when he had concluded it, he was asked to read, next day, 
^ Compare c. 52 iniU 



396 DE oratore; or, [b.iii. 

that also which had been published by Demosthenes on the 
other side in favour of Ctesiphon ; and when he had read this 
too in a most pleasing and powerful tone of voice, and all 
expressed their admiration. How much more would you have 
admired it, said he, if you had heard him deliver it himself/ 
By this remark, he sufficiently indicated how much depends 
on delivery, as he thought the same speech would appear 
different if the speaker were changed. What was it in Grac- 
chus, — whom you, Catulus, remember better, — that was so 
highly extolled when I was a boy ^ Whither shall I, unhappy 
wretch, betake myself ? Whither shall I turn ? To the Capitol ? 
But that is drenched with the blood of my brother ! Or to my 
home, that I may see my distressed and afflicted mother in all 
the agony of lamentation ? These words, it was allowed, were 
uttered by him with such delivery, as to countenance, voice, 
and gesture, that his very enemies could not restrain their 
tears. I dwell the longer on these particulars, because the 
orators, who are the deliverers of truth itself, have neglected 
this whole department, and the players, who are only the 
imitators of truth, have taken possession of it. 

LYII. " In everything, without doubt, truth has the ad- 
vantage over imitation ; and if truth were efficient enough in 
delivery of itself, we should certainly have no need for the aid 
of art. But as that emotion of mind, which ought to be 
chiefly expressed or imitated in delivery, is often so confused 
as to be obscured and almost overwhelmed, the peculiarities 
which throw that veil over it are to be set aside, and such as 
are eminent and conspicuous to be selected. For every emo- 
tion of the mind has from nature its own peculiar look, tone, 
and gesture; and the whole frame of a man, and his whole 
countenance, and the variations of his voice, sound^ like strings 
in a musical instrument, just as they are moved by the affec- 
tions of the mind. For the tones of the voice, like musical 
chords, are so wound up as to be responsive to every touch, 
sharp, flat, quick, slow, loud, gentle; and yet, among all these, 
each in its kind has its own middle tone. From these tones, 
too, are derived many other sorts, as the rough, the smooth, 
the contracted, the broad, the protracted, and interrupted; 

^ Sonant, As this word does not properly apply to vultus, the coun- 
tenance, Schutz would make some alteration in the text. But Miiller 
and others observe that such a zeugma is not uncommon. 



Bhi 



LVIII.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 397 

e broken and divided, the attenuated and inflated, with 
varieties of modulation ; for there is none of these, or those 
that resemble them, which may not be influenced by art and 
management ; and they are presented to the orator, as colours 
to the painter, to produce variety. 

LYIII. " Anger, for instance, assumes a particular tone of 
voice, acute, vehement, and with frequent breaks : 

My impious brother drives me on, ah wretched ! 
To tear my children with my teeth ! ^ 

and in those lines which you, Antonius, cited awhile ago :^ 

Have you, then, dared to separate him from you ? 

and, 

Does any one perceive this ? Bind him 

and almost the whole tragedy of Atreus. But lamentation 
and bewailing assumes another tone, flexible, full, interrupted, 
in a voice of sorrow : as, 

Whither shall I now turn myself ? what road 
Shall I attempt to tread ? Home to my father, 

Or go to Pelias' daughters ? ^ • 

and this, 

father, my country, House of Priam ! 

and that which follows, 

All these did I behold en wrapt in flames, 
And life from Priam torn by violence.^ 

Fear has another tone, desponding, hesitating, abject: 

In many ways am I encompass'd round ! 
By sickness, exile, want. And terror drives 
All judgment from my breast, deprived of sense ! 
One threats my life with torture and destruction, 
And no man has so firm a soul, such boldness, 
But that his blood shrinks backward, and his look 
Grows pale with timid fear.^ 

Violence has another tone, strained, vehement, impetuous, 
with a kind of forcible excitement : 

^ From the Atreus of Accius, whence also the next quotation but 
one is taken. See Tusc. Quaest. iv. 36. 
- See ii. 46. 

^ From the Medea of Ennius. 

* From the Andromache of Ennius. See Tusc. Qusest. i. 35 ; iii. 19. 
^ From the Alcmaeon of Ennius. 



398 DE oratore; or, [b. hi. 

Again Thyestes comes to drag on Atreus : 
Again attacks me, and disturbs my quiet : 
Some greater storm, some greater ill by me 
Must be excited, that I may confound 
And crush his cruel heart. ^ 

Pleasure another, unconstrained, mild, tender, cheeiful, 
languid : 

But when she brought for me the crown design'd 

To celebrate the nuptials, 'twas to thee 

She ofPer'd it, pretending that she gave it 

To grace another ; then on thee she" placed it 

Sportive, and graceful, and with delicacy.^ 

Trouble has another tone ; a sort of gravity without lamenta- 
tion ; oppressed, as it were, with one heavy uniform sound : 

'Twas at the time when Paris wedded Helen 
In lawless nuptials, and when I was pregnant, 
My months being nearly ended for delivery, 
Then, at that very time, did Hecuba 
Bring forth her latest offspring, Polydore. 

LIX. '^ On all these emotions a proper gesture ought to 
attend; not the gesture of the stage, expressive of mere 
w^ords, but one showing the whole force and meaning of 
a passage, not by gesticulation, but by emphatic delivery, by 
a strong and manly exertion of the lungs, not imitated from 
the theatre and the players, but rather from the camp and 
the palaestra. The action of the hand should not be too 
affected,^ but following the words rather than, as it were, 
expressing them by mimicry ; the arm should be considerably 
extended, as one of the weapons of oratory; the stamping 
of the foot should be used only in the most vehement efforts, 
at their commencement or conclusion. But all depends on 
the countenance; and even in that the eyes bear sovereign 
sway; and therefore the oldest of our countrymen showed 
the more judgment in not applauding even Roscius himself 
to any great degree when he performed in a mask ; for all the 
powers of action proceed from the mind, and the countenance 
is the image of the mind, and the eyes are its interpreters. 
This, indeed, is the only part of the body that can effectually 

^ From the Atreus of Accius. See Tusc. Quaest. iii. 36; De Nat. 
Deor. iii. 20. 

2 Whence this and the next quotation are taken is unknown. 

^ Arguta. Argutice digitorvmi. Orat. c. 18. Manus inter agendmn 
argutce admodum et gestuosce. Aul. Gell. i 5. 



(J. LX.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR, 399 

display as infinite a number of significations and changes, as 
there is of emotions in the soul ; nor can any speaker pro- 
duce the same effect with his eyes shut/ as with them open. 
Theophrastus indeed has told us, that a certain Tauriscus 
used to say, that a player who pronounced his part gazing 
on any particular object was like one who turned his back 
on the audience. 2 Great care in managing the eyes is there- 
fore necessary; for the appearance of the features is not to 
be too much varied, lest we fall into some absurdity or dis- 
tortion. It is the eyes, by whose intense or languid gaze, as 
well as by their quick glances and gaiety, we indicate 
the workings of our mind with a peculiar aptitude to the 
tenor of our discourse; for action is, as it were, the speech 
of the body, and ought therefore the more to accord with 
that of the soul. And Nature has given eyes to us, to declare 
our internal emotions, as she has bestowed a mane, tail, and 
ears on the horse and the lion. For these reasons, in our 
oratorical action, the countenance is next in power to the 
voice, and is influenced by the motion of the eyes. But in 
everything appertaining to action there is a certain force 
bestowed by Nature herself; and it is by action accordingly 
that the illiterate, the vulgar, and even barbarians themselves, 
are principally moved. For words move none but those who 
are associated in a participation of the same language ; and 
sensible thoughts often escape the understandings of senseless 
men; but action, which by its own powers displays the 
movements of the soul, affects all mankind ; for the minds 
of all men are excited by the same emotions, which they 
recognise in others, and indicate in themselves, by the same 
tokens. 

LX. " To effectiveness and excellence in delivery the voice 
doubtless contributes most; the voice, I say, which, in its 
full strength, must be the chief object of our wishes ; and 
next, whatever strength of voice we have, to cherish it. On 
this point, how we are to assist the voice has nothing to do 
with precepts of this kind, though, for my part, I think that 
we should assist it to the utmost. But it seems not un- 

^ I follow EUendt in reading co7inivens, instead of contuens, the com- 
mon reading, which OreUius retains. 

2 Aver sum. " Qui stet aversus k theatro, et spectatoribus tergum 
obvertat," Schutz. Of Tauriscus nothing is known. 



400 DE ORATORE j OR, \ [b. III. 

suitable to the purport of my present remarks; to observe, as 
I observed a little while ago, ' that in most things what is 
most useful is, I know not how, the most becoming;' for^ 
nothing is more useful for securing power of voice,^^fehanr-tfie 
frequent variation of it; nothing more pernicious than an 
immoderate straining of it without intermission. And what 
is more adapted to delight the ear, and produce agreeableness 
of delivery, than change, variety, and alteration of tone? 
Caius Gracchus, accordingly, (as you may hear, Catulus, 
from your client Licinius, a man of letters, whom Gracchus 
formerly had for his amanuensis,) used to have a skilful 
person with an ivory pitch-pipe, to stand concealed behind 
him when he made a speech, and who was in an instant to 
sound such a note as might either excite him from too 
languid a tone, or recal him from one too elevated." " I 
have heard this before," said Catulus, " and have often 
admired the diligence of that great man, as well as his 
learning and knowledge." "And I, too," said Crassus; "and 
am grieved that men of such talents should fall into such 
miscarriages with regard to the commonwealth; although 
the same web is still being woven ;i and such a state of 
manners is advancing in the country, and held out to pos- 
terity, that we now desire to have citizens such as our fathers 
would not tolerate." " Forbear, Crassus, I entreat you," in- 
terposed Caesar, '' from this sort of conversation, and go back 
to Gracchus's pitch-pipe, of which I do not yet clearly \mder- 
stand the object." 

LXI. " There is in every voice," continued Crassus, " a 
certain middle key; but in each particular voice that key is 
peculiar. For the voice to ascend gradually from this key 
is advantageous and pleasing ; since to bawl at the beginning 
of a speech is boorish, and gradation is salutary in strength- 
ening the voice. There is also a certain extreme in the 
highest pitch, (which, however, is low^er than the shrillest cry,) 
to which the pipe will not allow you to ascend, but will recal 
you from too strained an effort of voice. There is also, on 
the other hand, an extreme in the lowest notes, to which, as 
being of a full sound, we by degrees descend. This variety 
and this gradual progression of the voice throughout all the 
notes, will preserve its powers, and add agreeableness to deli- 
* As to the state of the republic at that time, see i. 7. Ellendt, 



C. LXI.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR. 401 

very. But you will leave the piper at home, and carry with 
you into the forum merely the intention of the custom. 

" I have said what I could, though not as I wished, but as \ 
the shortness of the time obliged me; for it is wise to lay thy 
blame upon the time, when you cannot add more even if you 
desired." ^' But," said Catulus, ''you have, as far as I can 
judge, brought together everything upon the subject, and 
that in so excellent a manner, that you seem not to have 
received instructions in the art from the Greeks, but to be 
able to instruct the Greeks themselves. I rejoice that I have 
been present at your conversation; and could wish that my 
son-in-law, your friend Hortensius,^ had also been present; 
who, I trust, will excel in all those good qualities of which you 
have treated in this dissertation." " Will excel!" exclaimed 
Crassus ; " I consider that he already excels. I had that 
opinion of him when he pleaded, in my consulship, the cause 
of Africa^ in the senate ; and I found myself still more con- 
firmed in it lately, when he spoke for the king of Bithynia.^ 
You judge rightly, therefore, Catulus; for I am convinced 
that nothing is wanting to that young man, on the part 
either of nature or of learning. You, therefore, Cotta, and 
you, Sulpicius, must exert the greater vigilance and industry ; 
for he is no ordinary orator, who is springing up to rival 
those of your age ; but one of a penetrating genius, and an 
ardent attachment to study, of eminent learning, and of 
singular powers of memory; but, though he is a favourite of 
mine, I only wish him to excel those of his own standing; 
for to desire that he, who is so much younger,^ should outstrip 
you, is hardly fair. But let us now arise, aad refresh our- 
selves, and at length relieve our minds and attention from 
this fatiguing discussion." 

^ The orator afterwards so famous. 

2 He pleaded this cause, observes Ellendt, at the age of nineteen; 
but the nature of it, as -well as that of the king of Bithjnia, is un- 
known. 

^ He was ten years younger than Cotta and Sulpicius. Brut. c. 88. 
Ellendt. 



END OF "DE ORATORE." 



D D 



BEUTUS; 

OR, 

REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 



ARGUMENT. 

This treatise was the fruit of Cicero's retirement, during the remains 
of the civil war in Africa, and was composed in the form of a 
dialogue. It contains a few short, but very masterly sketches of all 
the speakers who had flourished either in Greece or Rome, with any 
reputation of eloquence, down to his own time ; and 8.s he generally 
touches the principal incidents of their lives, it will be considered, 
by. an attentive reader, as a concealed epitome of the Roman history. 
The conference is supposed to have been held with Atticus, and their 
common friend Brutus, in Cicero's garden at Rome, under the statue 
of Plato, whom he always admired, and usually imitated in his 
Dialogues. 

I. When I had left Cilicia, and arrived at Rhodes, word was 
brought me of the death of Hortensius. I was more affected 
with it than, I believe, was generally expected; for, by the 
loss of my friend, I saw myself for ever deprived of the 
pleasure of his acquaintance, and of our mutual intercourse 
of good offices. I likewise reflected, with concern, that the 
dignity of our college must suffer greatly by the decease of 
such an eminent augur. This reminded me that he was the 
person who first introduced me to the college, where he 
attested my qualification upon oath, and that it was he also 
who installed me as a member; so that I was bound by the 
constitution of the order to respect and honour him as a 
parent. My affliction was increased, that, in such a deplorable 
dearth of wise and virtuous citizens, this excellent man, my 
faithful associav':e in the service of the public, expired at the 
very time when the commonwealth could least spare him, and 
when we had the greatest reason to regret the want of his 
prudence and authority. I can add, very sincerely, that in 
him I lamented the loss, not (as most people imagined) of a 
dangerous rival who opposed my reputation, but of a generous 
associate who engaged with me in the pursuit of fame. For 
if we have instances in history, though in studies of less 



BRUTQS ; OR^ REMARKS ON EMmENT ORATORS. 408 

importance, that some distinguished poets have been greatly 
alllicted at the death of their contemporary bards, with what 
tender concern should I honour the memory of a man with 
whom it is more glorious to have disputed the prize of 
eloquence, than never to have combated as an antagonist, 
especially as he was always so far from obstructing my endea- 
vours, or I Ais, that, on the contrary, we mutually assisted 
each other with our credit and advice 1 But as he, who had a 
perpetual run of felicity,^ left the world at a happy moment 
for himself, though a most unfortunate one for his fellow- 
citizens, — and died when it would have been much easier for 
him to lament the miseries of his country than to assist it, 
after living in it as long as he could have lived with honour 
and reputation, — we may, indeed, deplore his death as a 
heavy loss to U8 who survive him. If, however, we consider 
it merely as a personal event, we ought rather to congra- 
tulate his fate than to pity it; that, as often as we revive the 
memory of this illustrious and truly happy man, we may 
appear at least to have as much affection for him as for our- 
selves. For if we only lament that we are no longer pjermitted 
to enjoy him, it must, indeed, be acknowledged that this is a 
heavy misfortune to u^; which it however becomes us to 
support with moderation, lest our sorrow should be suspected 
to arise from motives of interest, and not from friendship. 
But if we afflict ourselves, on the supposition that he was the 
sufferer, we misconstrue an event, which to him was certainly 
a very happy one. 

II. If Hortensius were now living, he would probably regTet 

I many other advantages in common with his worthy fellow- 

i citizens. But when he beheld the forum, the great theatre in 

which he used to exercise his genius, no longer accessible to 

; that accomplished eloquence which could charm the ears of a 

Roman or a Grecian audience, he must have felt a pang of 

which none, or at least but few, besides himself could be 

' susceptible. Even / indulge heartfelt anguish, when I behold 

I .my country no longer supported by the talents, the wisdom, 

and the authority of law, — the only weapons which I have 

^ Quoniam perpetud quddam felicitate usus ille, cessit e vitd, suo magis 
quam suorum cimum tempore. This fine sentiment, conveyed in such 
elegant language, carries an allusion to the conversation of Solon 
svith Croesus, in which the former maintained the seeming paradox, 
that he alone can be deemed happy who meets a happy death. See 
Herod. Clio, 32. 

D D 2 



404 BRUTUS ; OR, 

learned to wield, and to which I have long been accustomed, 
and which are most suitable to the character of an illustrious 
citizen, and of a virtuous and well-regulated state. But if 
there ever was a time when the authority and eloquence of an 
honest individual could have wrested their arms from the 
hands of his distracted fellow-citizens, it was then when the 
proposal of a compromise of our mutual differences w^as 
rejected, by the hasty imprudence of some and the timorou? 
mistrust of others. Thus it happened, among other mis- 
fortunes of a more deplorable nature, that when my declining 
age, after a life spent in the service of the public, should have 
reposed in the peaceful harbour, not of an indolent and 
total inactivity, but of a moderate and honourable retirement, 
and when my eloquence was properly mellowed and had 
acquired its full maturity; — thus it happened, I say, that 
recourse was then had to those fatal arms, which the persons 
who had learned the use of them in honourable conquest 
could no longer employ to any salutary purpose. Those, 
therefore, appear to me to have enjoyed a fortunate and 
happy life, (of whatever state they were members, but 
especially in ours,) who, together with their authority and 
reputation, either for their military or political services, are 
allowed to enjoy the advantages of philosophy; and the sole 
remembrance of them, in our present melancholy situation, 
was a pleasing relief to me, when we lately happened to 
mention them in the course of conversation. 

III. For, not long ago, when I was walking for my amuse- 
ment in a private avenue at home, I was agreeably interrupted 
by my friend Brutus and Titus Pomponius, who came, as indeed 
they frequently did, to visit me, — two worthy citizens, who 
were united to each other in the closest friendship, and were 
so dear and so agreeable to me, that on the first sight of them, 
all my anxiety for the commonwealth subsided. After the 
usual salutations, "Well, gentlemen," said I, "how go the 
times? What news have you brought f " None," replied 
Brutus, " that you would wish to hear, or that I can venture 
to tell you for truth." " No," said Atticus ; " we are come 
with an intention that all matters of state should be dropped, 
and rather to hear something from you, than to say anything 
which might serve to distress you." " Indeed," said I, " your 
company is a present remedy for my sorrow ; and your letters, 
when absent, were so encouraging, that they first revived 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 405 

my attention to my studies." " I remember," replied Atticus, 
" that Brutus sent you a letter from Asia, which I read with 
infinite pleasure ; for he advised you in it like a man of sense, 
and gave you every consolation which the warmest friendship 
could suggest." " True," said I ; ^^ for it was the receipt of 
that letter which recovered me from a growing indisposition, 
to behold once more the cheerful face of day; and as the 
Roman state, after the dreadful defeat near Cannse, first raised 
its drooping head by the victory of Marcellus at Nola, which 
was succeeded by many other victories, so, after the dismal 
wreck of our affairs, both public and private, nothing occurred 
to me, before the letter of my friend Brutus, which I thought 
to be worth my attention, or which contributed, in any 
degree, to ease the anxiety of my heart." " That was certainly 
my intention," answered Brutus; " and if I had the happiness 
to succeed, I was sufficiently rewarded for my trouble. But 
I could wish to be informed what you received from Atticus, 
which gave you such uncommon pleasure." " That," said I, 
" which not only entertained mOj but I hope has restored me 
entirely to myself" " Indeed ! " replied he ; *^ and what mi- 
raculous composition could that be ? " " Nothing," answered 
I, " could have been a more acceptable or a more seasonable 
present than that excellent treatise of his, which roused me 
from a state of languor and despondency." "You mean,' 
said he, "his short and, I think, very accurate abridgement 
of universal history." " The very same," said I ; " for that 
little treatise has absolutely saved me." 

TV. " I am heartily glad of it," said Atticus ; " but what 
could you discover in it which was either new to you or so won- 
derfully beneficial as you pretend 1 " " It certainly furnished 
many hints," said I, " which were entirely new to me ; and 
the exact order of time which you observed through the 
whole, gave me the opportunity I had long wished for, of 
beholding the history of all nations in one regular and com- 
prehensive view. The attentive perusal of it proved an excel- 
lent remedy for my sorrows, and led me to think of attempt- 
ing something on your own plan, partly to amuse myself, and 
partly to return your favour by a grateful, though not an 
equal, acknowledgment. We are commanded, it is true, in 
that precept of Hesiod, so much admired by the learned, to 
return with the same measure we have received, or, if possible, 
with a larger. As to a friendly inclination, I shall certainly 



406 



BRUTUS ; OR, 



return you a full proportion of it; but as to a recompense in 
kind, I confess it to be out of my power, and therefore hope 
you will excuse me; for I have not, as husbandmen are 
accustomed to have, gathered a fresh harvest out of which to 
repay the kindness^ I have received; my whole harvest having 
sickened and died, for want of the usual manure; and as 
little am I able to present you with anything from those 
hidden stores which are now consigned to perpetual darkness, 
and to which I am denied all access, though formerly I was 
almost the only person who was able to command them at 
pleasure. I must, therefore, try my skill in a long-neglected 
and uncultivated soil; which I will endeavour to improve 
with so mach care, that I may be able to repay your liberality 
with interest; provided my genius should be so happy as to 
resemble a fertile field, which, after being suffered to lie fallow 
a considerable time, produces a heavier crop than usual." 

" Very w^ell," replied Atticus, " I shall expect the fulfilment 
of your promise ; but I shall not insist upon it till it suits 
your convenience, though, after all, I shall certainly be better 
pleased if you discharge the obligation." *' And I also," said 
Brutus, " shall expect that you perform your promise to my 
friend Atticus ; nay, though I am only his voluntary solicitor, 
I shall, perhaps, be very pressing for the discharge of a debt 
which the creditor himself is willing to submit to your own 
choice." Y. " But I shall refuse to pay you," said I, '^unless 
the original creditor takes no further part in the suit." " This 
is more than I can promise," replied he ; '^ for I can easily fore- 
see that this easy man, who disclaims all severity, will urge 
his demand upon you, not indeed to distress you, but yet 
with earnestness and importunity." ^' To speak ingenuously," 
said Atticus, ^' my friend Brutus, I believe, is not much mis- 
taken ; for as I now find you in good spirits for the first time, 
after a tedious interval of despondency, I shall soon make 
bold to apply to you ; and as this gentleman has promised his 
assistance to recover what you owe me, the least I can do is 
to solicit, in my turn, for what is due to him." '' Explain 
your meanii:ig," said I. " I mean," replied he, *^ that you 
must write something to amuse us; for your pen has been 

^ Non enim ex nOvis, ut agricolce solent, fructihus est, unde tibi reddam 
quod accepi. The allusion is to a farmer, who, in time of necessity, 
borrows corn or fruit of his more opulent neighbour, which he repays 
in kind as soon as his harvest is gathered home. Cicero was not, he 
.says, in a situation to make a similar return. 



REMARKS OX EMINENT ORATORS. 407 

totally silent this long time; and since your treatise on 
politics, we have had nothing from you of any kind, though 
it was the perusal of that which fired me with the ambition 
to write an abridgement of univei-sal history. But we shall, 
however, leave you to answer this demand when and in what 
manner you shall think most convenient. At present, if you 
are not otherwise engaged, you must give us your sentiments 
on a subject on which we both desire to be better informed." 
"And what is that V said I. " A work which you had just 
begun," replied he, " when I saw you last at Tusculanum, — 
the History of Eminent Orators, — when they made their ap- 
pearance, and who and what they were ; w^hich furnished such 
an agreeable train of conversation, that when I related the 
substance of it to your, or I ought rather to have said owr 
common, friend Brutus, he expressed an ardent desire to hear 
the whole of it from your own mouth. Knowing you, there- 
fore, to be at leisure, we have taken the present opportunity 
to wait upon you ; so that, if it is really convenient, you will 
oblige us both by resuming the subject." '' Well, gentlemen," 
said I, " as you are so pressing, I will endeavour to satisfy you 
in the best manner I am able." '• You are able enough," 
replied he ; '^ only unbend, or rather, if possible, set at full 
liberty your mind." " If I remember right," said I, '' Atticus. 
what gave rise to the conversation was my observing that the 
cause of Deiotarus, a most excellent sovereign and a faithful 
ally, was pleaded by our friend Brutus, in my hearing, with 
the greatest elegance and dignity." 

VI. '' True," replied he; '^and you took occasion, from the 
ill-success of Brutus, to lament the loss of a fair administration 
of justice in the forum." " I did so," answered I, " as indeed 
I frequently do; and whenever I see you, my Brutus, I am 
concerned to think where your wonderful genius, your finished 
erudition, and unparalleled industry will find a theatre to 
display themselves. For after you had thoroughly improved 
your abilities, by pleading a variety of important causes, and 
when my declining vigour was just giving way and lowering 
the ensigns of dignity to your more active talents, the liberty 
of the state received a fatal overthrow, and that eloquence, of 
which we are now to give the history, was condemned to per- 
petual silence." '• Our other misfortunes," replied Brutus, '^ I 
lament sincerely, and I think I ought to lament them; but as 
to eloquence, I am not so fond of the influence and the glory 



408 BRUTUS; OR, 

it bestowSj as of the study and the practice of it, whicli 
nothing can deprive me of, while you are so well disposed to 
assist me; for no man can be an eloquent speaker who has 
not a clear and ready conception. Whoever, therefore, applies 
himself to the study of eloquence, is at the same time im- 
proving his judgment, which is a talent equally necessary in 
all military operations." " Your remark," said I, " is very 
just; and I have a higher opinion of the merit of eloquence, 
because, though there is scarcely any person so diffident as 
not to persuade himself that he either has or may acquire 
every other accomplishment which formerly could have given 
him consequence in the state, I can find no person who has 
been made an orator by the success of his military prowess. 
But that we may carry on the conversation with greater ease, 
let us seat ourselves." As my visitors had no objection to 
this, we accordingly took our seats in a private lawn, near 
a statue of Plato. Then resuming the conversation, — " To 
recommend the study of* eloquence," said I, " and describe its 
force, and the great dignity it confers upon those who have 
acquired it, is neither our present design, nor has any neces- 
sary connexion with it. But I will not hesitate to affirm, that 
vvhether it is acquired by art or practice, or the mere powers 
of nature, it is the most difficult of all attainments ; for each 
of the five branches of which it is said to consist, is of itself a 
very important art; from whence it may easily be conjectured 
how great and arduous must be the profession which unites 
and comprehends them all. 

VII. '^ Greece alone is a sufficient witness of this ; for though 
she was fired with a wonderful love of eloquence, and has long 
since excelled every other nation in the practice of it, yet she 
had all the rest of the arts much earlier; and had not only 
invented, but even completed them, a considerable time before 
she was mistress of the full powers of elocution. But when I 
direct my eyes to Greece, your beloved Athens, my Atticus, 
first strikes my sight, and is the brightest object in my view; 
for in that illustrious city the orator first made his appearance, 
and it is there we shall find the earhest records of eloquence, 
and the first specimens of a discourse conducted by rules of 
art. But even in Athens there is not a single production 
now extant which discovers any taste for ornament, or seems 
to have been the effort of a real orator, before the time of 
Pericles (whose name is prefixed to some orations which still 



I 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 409 



remain) and his contemporary Thucydides ; who flourished, 
not in the infancy of the state, but when it had arrived at 
its full maturity of power. It is, however, supposed, that 
Pisistratus, (who lived many years before.) together with Solon, 
who was something older, and Clisthenes, who survived them 
both, were very able speakers for the age they lived in. But 
some years after these, as may be collected from the Attic 
annals, came Themistocles, who is said to have been as 
much distinguished by his eloquence as by his political abili- 
ties ] and after him the celebrated Pericles, who, though 
adorned with every kind of excellence, was most admired 
for his talents as a speaker. Cleon also, their contem- 
porary, though a turbulent citizen, w^as allowed to be a 
tolerable orator. These were immediately succeeded by 
Alcibiades, Critias, and Theramenes ; the character of their 
eloquence may be easily inferred from the writings of Thucy- 
dides, who lived at the same time ; their discourses were 
nervous and stately, full of sententious remarks, and so exces- 
sively concise as to be sometimes obscure. 

VIII. '' But as soon as the force of a reg-ular and well- 
adjusted style was understood, a crowd of rhetoricians immedi- 
ately appeared, — such as Gorgias the Leontine, Thrasymachus 
the Chalcedonian, Protagoras the Abderite, and Hippias the 
Elean, who w^ere all held in great esteem, — with many others 
of the same age, who professed (it must be owned rather too 
arrogantly) to teach their scholars how the worse might 
he made, by the force of eloquence, to appear the better cause. 
But these were openly opposed by Socrates, who, by a subtle 
method of arguing peculiar to himself, took every opportunity 
to refute the principles of their art. His instructive confer- 
ences produced a number of intelligent men, and Philosophy 
is said to have derived her birth from him; not the doctrine 
of Physics, which was of an earlier date, but that Philosophy 
which treats of men and manners, and of the nature of good 
and evil. But as this is foreign to our present subject, 
Ave must defer the philosophers to another opportunity, and 
return t® the orators, from whom I have ventured to make 
a short digression. When the professors, therefore, above- 
mentioned, were in the decline of life, Isocrates made his 
appearance, whose house stood open to all Greece as the 
school of eloquence. He was an accomplished orator, and an 
excellent teacher ; though he did not display his talents in the 



410 BRUTUS ; OR, 

splendour of the forum, but cherished and improved within ' 
the walls of an obscure academy, that glory which, in my 
opinion, no orator has since acquired. He composed many 
valuable specimens of his art, and taught the principles of it 
to others ; and not only excelled his predecessors in every part 
of it, but first discovered that a certainr hythm and modu- 
lation should be observed in prose, care being taken, however, 
to avoid making verses. Before him, the artificial structure 
and harmony of language was unknown ; — or, if there are any 
traces of it to be discovered, they appear to have been made 
without design ; which, perhaps, will be thought a beauty ; 
but whatever it may be deemed, it was, in the present case, 
the effect rather of native genius, or of accident, than of art 
and observation. For Nature herself teaches us to close our 
sentences within certain limits ; and when they are thus con- 
fined to a moderate flow of expression, they will frequently 
have an harmonious cadence ; for the ear alone can decide 
what is full and complete, and what is deficient; and the 
course of our language will necessarily be regulated by our 
breath, in which it is excessively disagreeable, not only to fail, 
but even to labour. 

IX. " After Isocrates came Lysias, who, though not personally 
engaged in forensic causes, was a very accurate and elegant 
composer, and such a one as you might almost venture to 
pronounce a complete orator; for Demosthenes is the man 
who approaches the character so nearly, that you may apply 
it to him without hesitation. No keen, no artful turns could 
have been contrived for the pleadings he has left behind him, 
which he did not readily discover; nothing could have been 
expressed with greater nicety, or more clearly and poignantly, 
than it has been already expressed by him; and nothing 
greater, nothing more rapid and forcible, nothing adorned 
with a nobler elevation, either of language or sentiment, can 
be conceived, than what is to be found in his orations. He 
was soon rivalled by his contemporaries Hyperides, ^schines, 
Lycurgus, Dinarchus, and Demades, (none of whose writings 
are extant,) with many others that might be mentioned ; for 
this age was adorned with a profusion of good orators ; and 
to the end of this period appears to me to have flourished 
that vigorous and blooming eloquence, w^hich is distinguished 
by a natural beauty of composition, without disguise or affec- 
tation. When these orators were in the decline of life, they 



REMARKS OX EMINENT ORATORS. 411 

were succeeded by Phalereus, then in the prime of youth. He 
indeed surpassed them all in learning, but was fitter to 
appear on the parade, than in the field ; and, accordingly, he 
rather pleased and entertained the Athenians, than inflamed 
their passions ; and marched forth into the dust and heat of 
the forum, not from a weather-beaten tent, but from the shady 
recesses of Theophrastus, a man of consummate erudition. 
He was the first who relaxed the force of Eloquence, and gave 
her a soft and tender air ; and he rather chose to be agree- 
able, as indeed he was, than great and striking ; but agreeable 
in such a manner as rather charmed, than warmed the mind of 
the hearer. His greatest ambition was to impress his audience 
with a high opinion of his elegance, and not, as Eupolis 
relates of Pericles, to animate as well as to please, 

X. '• You see, then, in the very city in which Eloquence 
was born and nurtured, how late it was before she grew to 
maturity; for before the time of Solon and Pisistratus, we 
meet with no one who is so much as mentioned as an able 
speaker. These, indeed, if we compute by the Roman date, 
may be reckoned very ancient : but if by that of the Athe- 
nians, we shall find them to be moderns. For though they 
flourished in the reign of Servius Tullius, Athens had then 
subsisted much longer than Rome has at present. I have not, 
however, the least doubt that the power of eloquence has 
been always more or less conspicuous. For Homer, we may 
suppose, would not have ascribed such superior talents of 
elocution to Ulysses and Nestor, (one of whom he celebrates 
for his force, and the other for his sweetness,) unless the art 
of speaking had then been held in some esteem ; nor could the 
poet himself have attained a style so finished, nor exhibited such 
fine specimens of oratory, as we actually find in him. The 
time, indeed, in which he lived is undetermined ; but we are 
certain that he flourished many years before Romulus, and a? 
early at least as the elder^ Lycurgus, the legislator of the 
Spartans. But a more particular attention to the art, ana a 
greater ability in the practice of it, may be observed in Pisis- 
tratus. He was succeeded in the following century by The- 
mistocles, who, according to the Roman date, was a person of 
the remotest antiquity ; but according to that of the Athe- 
nians, he was almost a modern. For he lived when Greece 

^ SupeHorem. So called, as Orellius observes, to distinguish him 
from Lycurgus the Athenian orator, mentioned in the preceding chapter. 



412 BRUTUS ; OR, 

was in the height of her power, and when the city of Rome 
had but lately been emancipated from the shackles of regal 
tyranny; for the dangerous war with the Yolsci, who were 
headed by Coriolanus (then a voluntary exile), happened nearly 
at the same time as the Persian war; and we may add, that 
the fate of both commanders was remarkably similar. Each 
of them, after distinguishing himself as an excellent citizen, 
being driven from his country by the insults of an ungrateful 
people, went over to the enemy; and each of them repressed 
the efforts of his resentment by a voluntary death. For 
though you, my Atticus, have represented the death of Corio- 
lanus in a dififerent manner, you must pardon me if I do not 
subscribe to the justness of your representation." 

XL " You may use your pleasure," replied Atticus, with a 
smile; '^ for it is the privilege of rhetoricians to exceed the 
truth of history, that they may have an opportunity of em- 
bellishing the fate of their heroes : and accordingly, Clitarchus 
and Stratocles have entertained us with the same pretty 
fiction about the death of Themistocles, which you have in- 
vented for Coriolanus. Thucydides, indeed, who was himself 
an Athenian of the highest rank and merit, and lived nearly 
at the same time, has only informed us that he died, and was 
privately buried in Attica, adding, that it was suspected by 
some that he had poisoned himself. But these ingenious 
writers have assured us, that, having slain a bull at the altar, 
he caught the blood in a large bowl, and, drinking it off, fell 
suddenly dead upon the ground. For this species of death 
had a tragical air, and might be described with all the pomp 
of rhetoric ; whereas the ordinary way of dying afforded no 
opportunity for ornament. As it will, therefore, suit your 
purpose, that Coriolanus should resemble Themistocles in 
everything. I give you leave to introduce the fatal bowl ; and 
you may still farther heighten the catastrophe by a solemn 
sacrifice, that Coriolanus may appear in all respects to have 
been a second Themistocles." ^^I am much obliged to you," said 
I, ^^ for your courtesy ; but, for the future, I shall be more 
cautious in meddling with history when* you are present ; 
whom I may justly commend as a most exact and scrupulous 
relator of the Roman history ; but nearly at the time we are 
speaking of (though somewhat later) lived the above-men- 
tioned Pericles, the illustrious son of Xantippus, who first 
improved his eloquence by the friendly aids of literature ; — 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 413 

not that kind of literature which treats professedly of the art 
of speaking, of which there was then no regular system ; but 
after he had studied under Anaxagoras, the naturalist, he 
directed with alacrity his attention from abstruse and intricate 
speculations to forensic and popular debates. All Athens was 
charmed with the sweetness of his language, and not only 
admired him for his fluency, but was awed by the superior 
force and terrors of his eloquence. 

XII. *' This age, therefore, which may be considered as the 
infancy of the art, furnished Athens with an orator who almost 
reached the summit of his profession ; for an emulation 
to shine in the forum is not usually found among a people 
who are either employed in settling the form of their govern- 
ment, or engaged in war, or struggling with difficulties, or 
subjected to the arbitrary power of kings. Eloquence is the 
attendant of peace, the companion of ease and prosperity, and 
the tender offspring of a free and well-established constitu- 
tion. Aristotle, therefore, informs us, that when the tyrants 
were expelled from Sicily, and private property, after a long 
interval of servitude, was secured by the administration of 
justice, the Sicilians, Corax and Tisias, (for this people, in 
general, were very quick and acute, and had a natural turn 
for disquisition,) first attempted to write precepts on the art of 
speaking. Before them, he says, no one spoke by prescribed 
method, conformably to rules of art, though many discoursed 
very sensibly, and generally from written notes ; but Prota- 
goras took the pains to compose a number of dissertations, on 
such leading and genej-al topics as are now called common 
places. Gorgias, he adds, did the same, and wrote panegyrics 
and invectives on every subject ; for he thought it was the 
province of an orator to be able either to exaggerate, or 
extenuate, as occasion might require. Antiphon the Rham- 
nusian composed several essays of the same species ; and 
(according to Thucydides, a very respectable writer, who was 
present to hear him) pleaded a capital cause in his own 
defence, with as much eloquence as had ever yet been dis- 
played by any man. But Lysias was the first who openly 
professed the ai^t ; and, after him, Theodorus, being better 
versed in the theory than the practice of it, began to compose 
orations for others to pronounce ; but confined to himself the 
art of composing them. In the same manner, Isocrates at 
first declined to teach the art, but wrote speeches for other 



414 BRUTUS; OR, 

people to deliver ; on which account, being often prosecuted 
for assisting, contrary to law, to circumvent one or another of 
the parties in judgment, he left off composing orations for 
other people, and wholly applied himself to prescribe rules, 
and reduce them into a system. 

XIII. " Thus, then, we have traced the birth and origin of 
the orators of Greece, who were, indeed, very ancient, as I have 
before observed, if we compute by the Roman annals ; but of 
a much later date, if we reckon by their own ; for the Athe- 
nian state had signalized itself by a variety of great exploits, 
both at home and abroad, a considerable time before she 
became enamoured of the charms of eloquence. But this 
noble art was not common to Greece in general, but almost 
peculiar to Athens. For who has ever heard of an Argive, a 
Corinthian, or a Theban orator, at the times we are speaking 
of ? unless, perhaps, some merit of the kind may be allowed 
to Epaminondas, who was a man of uncommon erudition. But 
I have never read of a Lacedemonian orator, from the earliest 
period of time to the present. For Menelaus himself, though 
said by Homer to have possessed a sweet elocution, is like- 
wise described as a man of few words. Brevity, indeed, upon 
some occasions, is a real excellence ; but it is very far from 
being compatible with the general character of eloquence. 
The art of speaking was likewise studied, and admired, beyond 
the limits of Greece; and the extraordinary honours which 
were paid to oratory have perpetuated the names of many 
foreigners who had the happiness to excel in it. For no 
sooner had eloquence ventured to sail from the Pirseeus, but 
L<he traversed all the isles, and visited every part of x^sia ; till 
ixt last, infected with their manners, she lost all the purity and 
the healthy complexion of the Attic style, and indeed almost 
forgot her native language. The Asiatic orators, therefore, 
though not to be undervalued for the rapidity and the copious 
variety of their elocution, were certainly too loose and luxu- 
riant. But the Rhodians were of a sounder constitution, and 
more resembled the Athenians. So much, then, for the 
Greeks; for, perhaps, what I have already said of them is 
more than was necessary." " Respecting the necessity of it," 
answered Brutus, " there is no occasion to speak; but what you 
have said of them has entertained me so agreeably, that 
instead of being longer, it has been much shorter than I could 
have wished." " A very handsome compliment," said I ; " but 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 415 

it is time to begin with our couutrjmen, of whom it is difficult 
to give any further account than what we are able to conjec- 
ture from our annals. 

XI y. '' For who can question the address and the capacity 
of Brutus, the illustrious founder of your family ; — that 
Brutus, who so readily discovered the meaning of the oracle, 
which promised the supremacy to him who should first salute 
his mother;^ — that Brutus, w4io, under the appearance of 
stupidity, concealed the most exalted understandiug ; — who 
dethroned and banished a powerful monarch, the son of an 
illustrious sovereign ; — who settled the state, which he had 
rescued from arbitrary powder, by the appointment of an 
annual magistracy, a regular system of laws, and a free and 
open course of justice ; — and who abrogated the authority of 
his colleague, that he might banish from the city the smallest 

Vestioje of the reo^al name ^ — events which could never have 
been produced without exerting the powers of persuasion ! 
We are likewise informed that a few years after the expulsion 
of the kings, when the Plebeians retired to the banks of the 
Anio, about three miles from the city, and had possessed 
themselves of what is called the Sacred Mount, Marcus Vale- 
rius the dictator appeased their fury by a public harangue; 
for which he was afterwards rewarded with the highest posts 

1 of honour, and was the first Roman who w^as distinguished by 
the surname of Maximus. Nor can Lucius Valerius Potitus 
be supposed to have been destitute of the powers of utterance, 
who, after the odium which had been excited against the 
Patricians by the tyrannical government of the Decemviri, 
reconciled the people to the senate by his prudent laws and 
conciliatory speeches. We may likewise suppose, that Appius 
Claudius was a man of some eloquence ; since he dissuaded 
the senate from consenting to a peace with king Pyrrhus, 
though they were much inclined to it. The same might be 
said of Caius Fabricius, who was despatched to Pyrrhus to 
treat for the ransom of his captive fellow-citizens ; and of 
Tiberius Coruncanius, who appears, by the memoirs of the pon- 
tifical college, to have been a person of the greatest genius ; 

^ The words here alluded to occur in Livy : *• Imperium summum 
Romae habebit, qui vestrum primus, juvenes, osculum matri tulerit." 
This at first was interpreted of Tarquin, who kissed his mother. But 
Brutus gave the words a different and more ingenious turn ; he illus- 
trated their meaning by faUing down and kissing the earth, the common 
mother of all mankind. 



41 G BRUTUS ; OR, 

and likewise of Manius Curius (then a tribune of the people^, 
who, when the Interrex Appius the Blind, an able speaker, 
held the Comitia contrary to law, refusing to admit any 
consul of plebeian rank, prevailed upon the senate to protest 
against the conduct of his antagonist ; which, if we consider 
that the Msenian law was not then in being, was a very bold 
attempt. We may also conclude that Marcus Pompilius was 
a man of abilities, who, in the time of his consulship, when he 
was solemnizing a public sacrifice in the proper habit of his 
office, (for he was also a Flamen Carmentalis,) hearing of the 
mutiny and insurrection of the people against the senate, 
rushed immediately into the midst of the assembly, covered 
as he was with his sacerdotal robes, and quelled the sedition 
by his authority and the force of his elocution. I do not 
pretend to have historical evidence that the persons here 
mentioned were then reckoned orators, or that any sort of 
reward or encouragement was given to eloquence ; I only infer 
what appears very probable. It is also recorded that Caius 
Flaminius, who, when tribune of the people, proposed the law 
for dividing the conquered territories of the Gauls and Piceni 
among the citizens, and who, after his promotion to the 
consulship, was slain near the lake Thrasimenus, became very 
popular by historical talents. Quintus Maximus Verrucosus 
w^as likewise reckoned a good speaker by his contemporaries ; 
as was also Quintus Metellus, who, in the second Punic war, 
was joint-consul with Lucius Yeturius Philo. 

XY. " But the first person we have any certain account of, 
who was publicly distinguished as an orator, and who really 
appears to have been such, was Marcus Cornelius Cethegus ; 
whose eloquence is attested by Quintus Ennius, a voucher of 
the highest credibility ; since he actually heard him speak, 
and gave him this character after his death; so that there is 
no reason to suspect that he was prompted by the warmth of 
his friendship to exceed the bounds of truth. In the ninth 
book of his Annals, he has mentioned him in the following 
terms : 

Additur orator Corneliu' snaviloquenti 

Ore Cethegus Marcu', Tuditano collega, 

Marci filius. 

^Add the orator Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, so much admired 
for his mellifluent tongue ; who was the colleague of Tuditanus, 
and the son of Marcus.' He expressly calls him an orator, you 



I 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 417 



see, and attributes to him a remarkable sweetness of elocution ; 
which, even in the present times, is an excellence of which few 
are possessed : for some of our modern orators are so insuffer- 
ably harsh, that they may be said rather to bark than to 
speak. But what the poet so much admires in his friend, 
may certainly be considered as one of the principal ornaments 
of eloquence. He adds : 

is dictus, ollis popularibus olim, 



Qui turn vivebant homines, atque sevum agitabant, 
Flos delibatus populi. 

' He was called by his contemporaries, the choicest flower of the 
state.' A very elegant compliment ! for as the glory of a man 
is the strength of his mental capacity, so the brightest orna- 
ment of genius is eloquence; in which, whoever had the 
happiness to excel, was beautifully styled, by the ancients, the 
flower of the state ; and, as the poet immediately subjoins, 

suadseque medulla : 



' the very marrow and quintessence of persuasion.' That which 
the Greeks call iruOia (i. e. persuasion), and which it is the 
chief business of an orator to effect, is here called suada by 
Ennius; and of this he commends Cethegus as the quint- 
essence; so that he makes the Eoman orator to be himself the 
very substance of that amiable goddess, who is said by Eupolis 
to have dwelt on the lips of Pericles. This Cethegus was 
joint-consul with Publius Tuditanus in the second Punic war 
at which time also Marcus Cato was quaestor, about one hun - 
dred and forty years before I myself was promoted to the 
consulship ; which circumstance would have been absolutely 
lost, if it had not been recorded by Ennius ; and the memory 
of that illustrious citizen, as has probably been the case of 
many others, would have been buried in the ruins of anti- 
quity. The manner of speaking which was then in vogue, 
may easily be collected from the writings of Nsevius; for 
Nsevius died, as we learn from the memoirs of the times, 
when the persons above-mentioned were consuls ; though 
Varro, a most accurate investigator of historical truth, thinks 
there is a mistake in this, and fixes the death of Neevius 
something later. For Plautus died in the consulship of Pub- 
lius Claudius and Lucius Porcius, twenty years after the 
ooTisulship of the persons we have been speaking of, and when 

E E 



418 BRUTUS j OR, 

Cato was censor. Cato, therefore, must have been younger 
than Cethegus, for he was consul nine years after him; but 
we always consider him as a person of the remotest antiquity, 
though he died in the consulship of Lucius Marcius and 
Manius ManiHus, and but eighty-three years before my own 
promotion to the same office. 

XYL " He is certainly, however, the most ancient orator we 
have, whose writings may claim our attention; unless any 
one is pleased, on account of the above-mentioned speech re- 
specting the peace with Pyrrhus, or a series of panegyrics on 
the dead, which, I own, are still extant, to compliment Appius 
with that character. For it was customary, in most families 
of note, to preserve their images, their trophies of honour, 
and their memoirs, either to adorn a funeral when any of the 
family deceased, or to perpetuate the fame of their ancestors, 
or prove their own nobility. But the truth of history has 
been much corrupted by these encomiastic essays; for many 
circumstances were recorded in them which never existed, 
such as false triumphs, a pretended succession of consulships, 
and false alliances and elevations, when men of inferior rank 
were confounded with a noble family of the same name ; as if I 
myself should pretend that I am descended from Manius 
Tullius, who was a Patrician, and shared the consulship with : 
Servius Sulpicius, about ten years after the expulsion of the 
kings. But the real speeches of Cato are almost as numerous , 
as those of Lysias the Athenian ; under whose name a great 
number are still extant. For Lysias was certainly an Athe- 
nian; because he not only died, but received his birth at 
Athens, and served all the offices of the city; though Timseus, 
as if he acted by the Licinian or the Mucian law, orders his 
return to Syracuse. There is, however, a manifest resem- 
blance between his character and that of Cato ; for they are 
both of them distinguished by their acuteness, their elegance, 
their agreeable humour, and their brevity. But the Greek 
has the happiness to be most admired ; for there are some 
who are so extravagantly fond of him, as to prefer a graceful 
air to a vigorous constitution, and who are perfectly satisfied 
with a slender and an easy shape, if it is only attended with \ 
a moderate share of health. It must, however, be acknow- 
ledged, that even Lysias often displays a vigour of mind, 
which no human power can excel ; though his mental frame 
is certainly more delicately wrought than that of Cato. Not- 



REMARKS OX EMINENT ORATORS. 419 

withstanding, he has many admirers, who are charmed with 
him, merely on account of his delicacy. 

XVII. '^ But as to Cato, where will you find a modern 
orator who condescends to read him? — nay, I might have 
said, who has the least knowledge of himi And yet, good 
gods ! what a wonderful man ! I say nothing of his merit as 
a citizen, a senator, and a general ; we must confine our 
attention to the orator. Who, then, has displayed more 
dignity as a panegyrist? — more severity as an accuser? — 
greater acuteness of sentiments? — or greater address in re- 
lating and informing ? Though he composed above a hun- 
dred and fifty orations, (which I have seen and read,) they are 
crowded with all the beauties of language and sentiment. 
Let us select from these what deserves our notice and ap- 
plause ; they will supply us with all the graces of oratory. 
Not to omit his Antiquities, who will deny that these also 
are adorned with every flower, and with all the lustre of elo- 
quence ? and yet he has scarcely any admirers ; which some 
ages ago was the case of Philistus the Syracusan, and even of 
Thucydides himself. For as the lofty and elevated style of 
Theopompus soon diminished the reputation of their pithy 
and laconic harangues, which were sometimes scarcely intel- 
ligible from excessive brevity and quaintness ; and as De- 
mosthenes eclipsed the glory of Lysias ; so the pompous and 
stately elocution of the moderns has obscured the lustre of 
Cato. But many of us are deficient in taste and discernment, 
for we admire the Greeks for their antiquity, and what is 
called their Attic neatness, and yet have never noticed the 
same quality in Cato. This was the distinguishing character, 
say they, of Lysias and Hyperides. I own it, and I admire 
them for it ; but why not allow a share of it to Cato ? They 
are fond, they tell us, of the Attic style of eloquence ; and 
their choice is certainly judicious, provided they not only 
copy the dry bones, but imbibe the animal spirits of those 
models. What they recommend, however, is, to do it justice, 
an agreeable quality. But why must Lysias and Hyperides 
be so fondly admired, while Cato is entirely overlooked ? 
His language indeed has an antiquated air, and some of his 
expressions are rather too harsh and inelegant. But let us 
remember that this was the language of the time ; only 
change and modernise it, which it was not in his power to 
do ; add the improvements of number and cadence, give an 

E E 2 



420 BRUTUS; OR, 

easier turn to his sentences, and regulate the structure and 
connexion of his words, (which was as httle practised even by 
the older Greeks as by him,) and you will find no one who can 
claim the preference to Cato. The Greeks themselves acknow- 
ledge that the chief beauty of composition results from the 
frequent use of those tralatitious forms of expression which 
they call tropes, and of those various attitudes of language 
and sentiment which they call figures; but it is almost in- 
credible in what copiousness, and with what amazing variety, 
they are all employed by Cato. 

XYIII. " I know, indeed, that he is not sufficiently polished, 
and that recourse must be had to a more perfect model for 
imitation ; for he is an author of such antiquity, that he is the 
oldest now extant whose writings can be read with patience; 
and the ancients, in general, acquired a much greater reputa- 
tion in every other art, than in that of speaking. But who 
that has seen the statues of the moderns, will not perceive in 
a moment that the figures of Canachus are too stiff and 
formal to resemble life? Those of Calamis, though evidently 
harsh, are somewhat softer. Even the statues of Myron are 
not sufficiently alive ; and yet you would not hesitate to pro- 
nounce them beautiful. But those of Polycletes are much 
finer, and, in my mind, completely finished. The case is the 
same in painting ; for in the works of Zeuxis, Polygnotus, 
Timanthes, and several other masters, who confined themselves 
to the use of four colours, we commend the air and the sym- 
metry of their figures ; but in Echion, Nicomachus, Proto- 
genes, and Apelles, everything is finished to perfection. This^ 
I believe, will hold equally true in all the other arts ; for there 
is not one of them w^hich was invented and carried to perfec- 
tion at the same time. I cannot doubt, for instance, that 
there were many poets before Homer ; we may infer it from 
those very songs which he himself informs us were sung at 
the feasts of the Phseacians, and of the profligate suitors of 
Penelope. Nay, to go no farther, what is become of the 
ancient poems of our own countrymen ? 

Such as the fauns and rustic bards composed, 
When none the rocks of poetry had cross' d, 
Nor wish'd to form his style by rules of art, 
Before this vent'rous man, &c. 

" Old Ennius here speaks of himself; nor does he carry his 
boast beyond the bounds of truth ; the case being really as 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 421 

he describes it. For we had only an Odyssey in Latin, which 
resembled one of the rough and unfinished statues of Daedalus ; 
and some dramatic pieces of Livius, which will scarcely bear 
a second reading. This Livius exhibited his first performance 
at Rome in the consulship of Marcus Tuditanus, and Caius 
I Clodius the son of Csecus, the year before Ennius w^as born, 
and, according to the account of my friend Atticus, (whom 
I choose to follow,) the five hundred and fourteenth from the 
building of the city. But historians are not agreed about the 
date of the year. Attius informs us that Livius was taken 
prisoner at Tarentum by Quintus Maximus in his fifth con- 
sulship, about thirty years after he is said by Atticus, and 
our ancient annals, to have introduced the drama. He adds, 
that he exhibited his first dramatic piece about eleven years 
after, in the consulship of Caius Cornelius and Quintus 
Minucius, at the public games which Salinator had vowed to 
the Goddess of Youth for his victory over the Senones. But 
in this, Attius w^as so far mistaken, that Ennius, when the 
persons above-mentioned were consuls, was forty years old ; 
so that if Livius was of the same age, as in this case he would 
have been, the first dramatic author we had must have been 
younger than Plautus and Nsevius, who had exhibited a great 
number of plays before the time he specifies. 

XIX. " If these remarks, my Brutus, appear unsuitable to 
the subject before us, you must throw the whole blame upon 
Atticus, who has inspired me with a strange curiosity to 
inquire into the age of illustrious men, and the respective 
times of their appearance." " On the contrary," said Brutus, 
" I am highly pleased that you have carried your attention so 
far; and I think your remarks well adapted to the curious 
task you have undertaken, the giving us a history of the dif- 
ferent classes of orators in their proper order." " You under- 
stand me rightly," said I; " and I heartily wish those venerable 
Odes were still extant, which Cato informs us, in his Anti- 
quities, used to be sung by every guest in his turn at the 
homely feasts of our ancestors, many ages before, to comme- 
morate the feats of their heroes. But the Punic War of that 
antiquated poet, whom Ennius so proudly ranks among the 
fauns and rustic hards, affords me as exquisite a pleasure as 
the finest statue that was ever formed by Myron. Ennius, 
I allow, was a more finished writer ; but if he had really 
undervalued the other, as he pretends to do, he would scarcely 



422 BRUTUS ; or, 

have omitted such a bloody war as the first Punic^ when he 
attempted professedly to describe all the wars of the Republic. 
Nay, he himself assigns the reason : 

Others (said he) that cruel war have sung. 

Very true, and they have sung it with great order and pre- 
cision, though not, indeed, in such elegant strains as yourself. 
This you ought to have acknowledged, as you must certainly 
be conscious that you have borrowed many ornaments from 
Nsevius ] or if you refuse to own it, I shall tell you plainly 
that you have pilfered them. 

" Contemporary with the Cato above-mentioned (though 
somewhat older) were Caius Flaminius, Caius Varro, Quintus 
Maximus, Quintus Metellus, Publius Lentulus, and Publius 
Crassus, who was joint consul with the elder Africanus. This 
Scipio, we are told, was not destitute of the powers of elocu- 
tion ; but his son, who adopted the younger Scipio (the son 
of Paulus ^milius), would have stood foremost in the list of 
orators, if he had possessed a firmer constitution. This is 
evident from a few speeches, and a Greek History of his, 
which are very agreeably written. 

XX. " In the same class we may place Sextus ^lius, who 
was the best lawyer of his time, and a ready speaker. A little 
after these, flourished Caius Sulpicius Callus, who was better 
acquainted with the Grecian li'te-rature than all the rest of 
the nobility, and to his reputation as a graceful orator, he 
added the highest accomplishments in every other respect; 
for a more copious and splendid way of speaking began now 
to prevail. When this Sulpicius, in quality of praetor, was 
celebrating the public shows in honour of Apollo, died the 
poet Ennius, in the consulship of Quintus Marcius and 
Cneius Servilius, after exhibiting his traged}^ of Thyestes. At 
the same time lived Tiberius Gracchus, the son of Publius, 
who was twice consul and censor ; a Greek oration of his to 
the Rhodians is still extant, and he bore the character of a 
worthy citizen and an eloquent speaker. We are likewise 
told that Publius Scipio Nasica, surnamed Gorculum} as a 
favourite of the people, and who also had the honour to be 

^ His name was Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica. From Cornelius ^ 
as being a favourite of the people, he was called Corculum, the " little 
heart " of the people. In our language, with nearer affinity to his real 
name, he might have been styled " kernel " of the people. 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 423 

twice chosen consul and censor, was esteemed an able orator. 
To him we may add Lucius Lentulus, who was joint consul 
with Caius Figulus ; Quintus Nobilior, the son of Marcus, 
who was inclined to the study of literature by his father's 
example, and presented Ennius (who had served under his 
feither in ^tolia) with the freedom of the city, when he 
founded a colony in quality of triumvir ; and his colleague 
Titus Annius Luscus, who is said to have been tolerably elo- 
quent. We are likewise informed that Lucius Paulus, the 
father of Africanus, defended the charactor of an eminent 
citizen in a public speech ; and that Cato, who died in the 
eighty-third year of his age, was then living, and actually 
pleaded that very year against the defendant Servius Galba, 
in the open forum, with great energy and spirit ; he has left 
a copy of this oration behind him. 

XXL ^' But when Cato was in the decline of life, a crowd 
of orators, all younger than himself, made their appearance 
at the same time ; for Aulus Albinus, who wrote a history in 
Greek, and shared the consulship with Lucius Lucullus, was 
greatly admired for his learning and elocution ; and nearly 
ranked with him were Servius Fulvius and Servius Fabius 
Pictor, the latter of whom was well acquainted with the laws 
of his country, the belles lettres, and the history of antiquity. 
Quintus Fabius Labeo likewise excelled in the same accom- 
plishments. But Quintus Metellus, whose four sons attained 
the consular dignity, was admired for his eloquence beyond 
the rest ; he undertook the defence of Lucius Cotta, when 
accused by Africanus, and composed many other speeches, 
particularly that against Tiberius Gracchus, of which we have 
a full account in the annals of Caius Fannius. Lucius Cotta 
himself was likewise reckoned a skilful speaker;^ but Caius 
Lselius and Publius Africanus were allowed by all to be more 
finished orators ; their orations are still extant, and may serve 
as specimens of their respective abilities. But Servius Galba, 
who somewhat preceded either of them in years, was indis- 
putably the best speaker of the age. He was the first among 
the Eomans who displayed the proper and distinguishing 
talents of an orator ; such as, digressing fi:-om his subject to 

^ The original is veterator habitus. He was deemed " a veteran," ^. e. 
he possessed all the skill of long-continued practice. Sextus Pom- 
peius interprets vetercUoreSf " callidi dicti a mult^ rerum gerendanim 
vetustate." 



4:24 BRUTUS; or, 

embellish and diversify it, — soothing or alarming the passions, 
exhibiting every circumstance in the strongest light, — im- 
ploring the compassion of his audience, — and artfully en- 
larging on those topics, or general principles of prudence or 
morality, on which the stress of his argument depended : and 
yet, I know not how, though he is allowed to have been the 
greatest orator of his time, the orations he has left are more 
inanimate, and have more the air of antiquity, than those of 
Leelius, or Scipio, or even of Cato himself. Their beauties 
have so decayed with age, that scarcely anything remains of 
them but the bare skeleton. In the same manner, though 
both Lselius and Scipio are greatly extolled for their abilities, 
the preference was given to Lselius as a speaker; and yet his 
oration, in defence of the privileges of the Sacerdotal college, 
has no greater merit than any one that might be named of 
the numerous speeches of Scipio. Nothing, indeed, can be 
sweeter and milder than that of Lselius, nor could anything 
have been urged with greater dignity to support the honour 
of religion ; but, of the two, Lselius appears to me to be 
less polished, and to speak more of the mould of time than 
Scipio ; and, as different speakers have different tastes, he 
had, in my mind, too strong a relish for antiquity, and was 
too fond of using obsolete expressions. But such is the jea- 
lousy of mankind, that they will not allow the same person to 
be possessed of too many perfections. For, as in military 
prowess they thought it impossible that any man could vie 
with Scipio, though Laelius had not a little distinguished 
himself in the war with Viriathus ; so for learning, eloquence, 
and wisdom, though each was allowed to be above the reach 
of any other competitor, they adjudged the preference to 
Leelius. Nor was this the opinion of the public only, but it 
seems to have been allowed by mutual consent between 
themselves ; for it was then a general custom, as candid in 
this respect as it was fair and just in every other, to give his 
due to each. 

XXII. " I accordingly remember that Publius Rutilius Rufus 
once told mejat Smyrna, that when he was a young man, the 
two consuls Publius Scipio and Decimus Brutus, by order of 
the Senate, tried a capital cause of great consequence. For 
several persons of note having been murdered in the Silaii 
Forest, and the domestics and some of the sons of a company 
of gentlemen who farmed the taxes of the pitch- manufactory, 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 425 

being charged with the fact, the consuls were ordered to try 
the cause in person. Lselius, he said, spoke very sensibly and 
elegantly, as indeed he always did, on the side of the farmers 
of the customs. But the consuls, after hearing both sides, 
judging it necessary to refer the matter to a second trial, the 
same Laelius, a few days after, pleaded their cause again 
with more accuracy, and much better than at first. The 
aflFair, however, was once more put off for a further hearing. 
Upon this, when his clients attended Lselius to his own house, 
and, after thanking him for what he had already done, earn- 
estly begged him not to be disheartened by the fatigue he 
had suffered, he assured them he had exerted his utmost to 
defend their reputation; but frankly added, that he thought 
their cause would be more effectually supported by Servius 
Galba, who possessed talents more powerful and penetrating 
than his own. They, accordingly, by the advice of Laelius, 
requested Galba to undertake it. To this he consented, but 
with the greatest modesty and reluctance, out of respect to 
the illustrious advocate he ^vas going to succeed ; and as he 
had only the next day to prepare himself, he spent the whole 
of it in considering and digesting his cause. When the day 
of trial was come, Rutilius himself, at the request of the 
defendants, went early in the morning to Galba, to give him 
notice of it, and conduct him to the court in proper time. 
But till word was brought that the consuls were going to the 
bench, he confined himself in his study, where he suffered 
no one to be admitted ; and continued very busy in dictating 
to his amanuenses, several of whom (as indeed he often used 
to do) he kept fully employed at the same time. While he 
was thus engaged, being informed that it was high time for 
him to appear in court, he left his house with that animation 
and glow of countenance, that you would have thought he had 
not only j^r^joarec^ his cause, but actually carried it. Rutilius 
added, as another circumstance worth noticing, that his 
scribes, who attended him to the bar, appeared excessively 
fatigued ; from whence he thought it probable that he was 
equally warm and vigorous in the composition, as in the de- 
livery of his speeches. But to conclude the story, Galba 
pleaded his cause before Lselius himself, and a very numerous 
and attentive audience, with such uncommon force and dig- 
nity, that every part of his oration received the applause of 
\iis hearers ; and so powerfully did he move the feelings and 



4:26 BRUTUS; or, 

ensure the sympathy of the judges, that his clients were im- 
mediately acquitted of the charge, to the satisfaction of the 
whole court. • 

XXIII. " As, therefore, the two principal qualities required 
in an orator, are perspicuity in stating the subject, and dig- 
nified ardour in moving the passions ; and as he who fires 
and inflames his audience, will always effect more than he who 
can barely inform and amuse them; we may conjecture from 
the above narrative, with which I was favoured by Eutilius, 
that Lselius was most admired for his elegance, and Galba for 
his pathetic force. But the energy peculiar to him was most 
remarkably exerted, when, having in his prsetorship put to 
death some Lusitanians, contrary, it was believed, to his pre- 
vious and express engagement, Titus Libo, the tribune, exas- 
perated the people against him, and preferred a bill which 
was to operate against his conduct as a subsequent law. 
Marcus Cato, as I have before mentioned, though extremely 
old, spoke in support of the bill with great vehemence ; which 
speech he inserted in his book of Antiquities, a few days, or 
at most only a month or two, before his death. On this occa- 
sion, Galba not refusing to plead to the charge, and submitting 
his fate to the generosity of the people, recommended his 
children to their protection, with tears in his eyes; and par- 
ticularly his young ward, the son of Caius Gallus Sulpicius, 
his deceased friend, whose orphan state and piercing cries, 
which were the more regarded for the sake of his illustrious 
father, excited their pity in a wonderful manner; and thus, as 
Cato informs us in his History, he escaped the flames which 
would otherwise have consumed him, by employing the children 
to move the compassion of the people. I likewise find (what 
may be easily judged from his orations still extant) that his 
prosecutor, Libo, was a man of some eloquence." As I con- 
cluded these remarks with a short pause, " What can be the 
reason," said Brutus, "if there was so much merit in the 
oratory of Galba, that there is no trace of it to be seen in his 
orations ? a circumstance which I have no opportunity to be 
surprised at in others, who have left nothing behind them in 
writing." 

XXIY. " The reasons," said I, "why some have not written 
anything, and others not so well as they spoke, are very 
different. Some of our orators, as being indolent, and un- 
willing to add the fatigue of private to public business, do 



BEMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 427 

not practise composition ; for most of the orations we are now 
possessed of were written, not before they were spoken, but 
some time afterwards. Others did not choose the trouble of 
improving themselves, to which nothing more contributes 
than frequent writing ; and as to perpetuating the fame of 
their eloquence, they thought it unnecessary; supposing that 
their eminence in that respect was sufficiently established 
already, and that it would be rather diminished than in- 
creased by submitting any written specimen of it to the arbi- 
trary test of criticism. Some also were sensible that they 
spoke much better than they were able to write ; which is 
generally the case of those who have a great genius, but little 
learning, such as Servius Galba. When he spoke, he was 
perhaps so much animated by the force of his abilities, and 
the natural warmth and impetuosity of his temper, that his 
language was rapid, bold, and striking ; but afterwards, when 
he took up the pen in his leisure hours, and his passion had 
sunk into a calm, his elocution became dull and languid. 
This indeed can never happen to those whose only aim 
is to be neat and polished ; because an orator may always be 
master of that discretion which will enable him both to 
speak and write in the same agreeable manner ; but no man 
can revive at pleasure the ardour of his passions ; and when 
that has once subsided, the fire and pathos of his language 
will be extinguished. This is the reason why the calm and 
easy spirit of Lselius seems still to breathe in his writings; 
whereas the vigour of Galba is entirely withered away. 

XXV. " We may also reckon in the number of middling 
orators, the two brothers Lucius and Spurius Mummius, 
both whose orations are still in being ; the style of Lucius is 
plain and antiquated; but that of Spurius, though equally 
unembellished, is more close and compact ; for he was well 
versed in the doctrine of the Stoics. The orations of Spurius 
Alpinus, their contemporary, are very numerous; and we 
have several by Lucius and Gains Aurelius Oresta, who were 
esteemed indifferent speakers. Publius Popilius also was 
a worthy citizen, and had a moderate share of elocution ; but 
his son Caius was really eloquent. To these we may add 
Cains Tuditanus, who was not only very polished and grace- 
ful in his manners and appearance, but had an elegant turn 
of expression ; and of the same class was Marcus Octavius, a 
man of inflexible constancy in every just and laudable 



4:28 BRUTUS; or, 

measure ; and who, after being insulted and disgraced in the 
most public manner, defeated his rival Tiberius Gracchus by 
the mere dint of his perseverance. But Marcus ^milius 
Lepidus, who was surnamed Porcina, and flourished at the 
same time as Galba, though he was indeed something 
younger, was esteemed an orator of the first eminence ; 
and really appears, from his orations which are still extant, to 
have been a masterly writer. For he was the first speaker 
among the Romans who gave us a specimen of the easy 
gracefulness of the Greeks ; and who was distinguished by 
the measured flow of his language, and a style regularly 
polished and improved by art. His manner was carefully 
studied by Cains Carbo and Tiberius Gracchus, two accom- 
plished youths, who were nearly of an age : but we must 
defer their character as public speakers, till we have finished 
our account of their elders. For Quintus Pompeius, consider- 
ing the time in which he lived, was no contemptible orator, 
and actually raised himself to the highest honours of the 
state by his own personal merit, and without being recom- 
mended, as usual, by the quality of his ancestors. Lucius 
Cassius too derived his influence, which was very considerable, 
not indeed from the highest powers, yet from a tolerable • 
share of eloquence ; for it is remarkable that he made himself 
popular, not as others did, by his complaisance and liberality, 
but by the gloomy rigour and severity of his manners. His 
law for collecting the votes of the people by way of ballot, 
was strongly opposed by the tribune Marcus Antius Briso, 
who was supported by Marcus Lepidus, one of the consuls : 
and it was afterwards objected to Africanus, that Briso 
dropped the opposition by his advice. At this time the two 
Csepios were very serviceable to a number of clients by their . 
superior judgment and eloquence j but still more so by their 
extensive interest and popularity. But the written speeches 
of Pompeius (though it must be owned they have rather 
an antiquated air) discover an amazing sagacity, and are very 
far from being dry and spiritless. 

XXVI. " To these we must add Publius Crassus, an orator 
of uncommon merit, who was qualified for the profession by 
the united efforts of art and nature, and enjoyed some other 
advantages which were almost peculiar to his family. For he 
had contracted an affinity with that accomplished speaker 
Servius Galba above-mentioned, by giving his daughter in 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 429 

marriage to Galba's son ; and being likewise hinciself the son 
of Mucins, and the brother of Publius Scsevola, he had a fine 
opportunity at home (which he made the best use of) to gain 
a thorough knowledge of the civil law. He was a man of 
unusual application, and was much beloved by his fellow- 
citizens; being constantly employed either in giving his 
advice, or pleading causes in the forum. Contemporary with 
the speakers I have mentioned were the two Caii Fannii, 
the sons of Caius and Marcus, one of whom, (the son of 
Caius,) who was joint consul with Domitius, has left us an ex- 
cellent speech against Gracchus, who proposed the admission 
of the Latin and Italian allies to the freedom of Eome." " Do 
you really think, then," said Atticus, " that Fannius was the 
author of that oration ? For when we were young, there were 
different opinions about it. Some asserted it was written by 
Caius Persius, a man of letters, and much extolled for his 
learning by Lucilius ; and others believed it the joint pro- 
duction of a number of noblemen, each of whom contributed 
his best to complete it." " This I remember," said I ; '^ but I 
could never persuade myself to coincide with either of them. 
Their suspicion, I believe, was entirely founded on the cha- 
racter of Fannius, who was only reckoned among the middling 
orators j whereas the speech in question is esteemed the best 
which the time afforded. But, on the other hand, it is too 
much of a piece to have been the mingled composition 
of many; for the flow of the periods, and the turn of the 
language, are perfectly similar, throughout the whole of it. 
And as to Persius, if he had composed it for Fannius to pro- 
nounce, Gracchus would certainly have taken some notice of 
it in his reply; because Fannius rallies Gracchus pretty 
severely, in one part of it, for employing Menelaus of Maratho, 
and several others, to compose his speeches. We may add, 
that Fannius himself was no contemptible orator; for he 
pleaded a number of causes, and his tribuneship, which was 
chiefly conducted under the management and direction of 
Publius Africanus, exhibited much oratory. But the other 
Caius Fannius (the son of Marcus and son-in-law of Caius 
Lsehus) was of a rougher cast, both in his temper and manner 
of speaking. By the advice of his father-in-law, (of whom, 
by the by, he was not remarkably fond, because he had not 
voted for his admission into the college of augurs, but gave 
the preference to his yoimger son-in-law, Quintus Scsevola ; 



430 

though Lselius politely excused himself, by saying that the 
preference was not given to the youngest son, but to his wife 
the eldest daughter,) by his advice, I say, he attended the 
lectures of Panaetius. His abilities as a speaker may be 
easily inferred from his history, which is neither destitute of 
elegance, nor a perfect model of composition. As to his 
brother Mucins, the augur, whenever he was called upon to 
defend himself, he always pleaded his own cause ; as, for in- 
stance, in the action which was brought against him for 
bribery by Titus Albucius. But he was never ranked among 
the orators; his chief merit being a critical knowledge 
of the civil law, and an uncommon accuracy of judgment. 
Lucius Cselius Antipater, likewise, (as you may see by his 
works,) was an elegant and a perspicuous writer for the time 
he lived in ; he was also an excellent lawyer, and taught the 
principles of jurisprudence to many others, particularly to 
Lucius Crassus. 

XXVII. " As to Cains Carbo and Tiberius Gracchus, I 
wish they had been as well inclined to maintain peace and 
good order in the state, as they were qualified to support it 
by their eloquence ; their gioiy would then have never been 
excelled. But the latter, for his turbulent tribuneship, which 
he entered upon with a heart full of resentment against the 
great and good, on account of the odium he had brought upon 
himself by the treaty of Numantia, was slain by the hands of 
the republic ; and the other, being impeached of a seditious 
affectation of popularity, rescued himself from the severity of 
the judges by a voluntary death. That both of them were 
excellent speakers, is very plain from the general testimony of 
their contemporaries; for, as to their speeches now extant, 
though I allow them to be very skilful and judicious, they are 
certainly defective in elocution. Gracchus had the advantage 
of being carefully instructed by his mother Cornelia from his 
very childhood, and his mind was enriched with all the stores 
of Grecian literature ; for he was constantly attended by the 
ablest masters from Greece, and particularly, in his youth, by 
Diophanes of Mitylene, who was the most eloquent Grecian of 
his age ; but though he was a man of uncommon genius, he 
had but a short time to improve and display it. As to 
Carbo, his whole life was spent in trials, and forensic debates. 
He is said, by very sensible men who heard him, and among 
others by our friend Lucius Gellius^ who lived in his family 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 431 

in the time of his consulshipj to have been a sonorous, a 
fluent, and a spirited speaker, and hkewise, upon occasion, 
very pathetic, very engaging, and excessively humorous : 
Gellius used to add, that he applied himself very closely 
to his studies, and bestowed much of his time in writing and 
private declamation. He was, therefore, esteemed the best 
pleader of his time ; for no sooner had he begun to distin- 
guish himself in the forum, but the depravity of the age gave 
birth to a number of law-suits ; and it was first found neces- 
sary, in the time of his youth, to settle the form of public 
trials, which had never been done before. We accordingly 
find that Lucius Piso, then a tribune of the people, was the 
first who proposed a law against bribery ; which he did when 
Censorinus and Manilius were consuls. This Piso too was 
a professed pleader, who moved and opposed a great number 
of laws j he left some orations behind him, which are now 
lost, and a book of annals very indifferently written. But in 
the public trials, in which Carbo was concerned, the assistance 
of an able advocate had become more necessary than ever, in 
consequence of the law for voting by ballots, which was pro- 
posed and carried by Lucius Cassius, in the consulship of 
Lepidus and Mancinus. 

XXYIII. '^' I have likewise been often assured by the poet 
Attius, (an intimate friend of his,) that your ancestor Decimus 
Brutus, the son of Marcus, was no inelegant speaker ; and 
that, for the time he lived in, he was well versed both in the 
Greek and Roman literature. He ascribed the same accom- 
plishments to Quintus Maximus, the graadson of Lucius 
Paulus ; and added that, a little prior to Maximus, the Scipio, 
by whose instigation (though only in a private capacity) 
Tiberius Gracchus was assassinated, was not only a man of 
great ardour in all other respects, but very warm and spirited 
in his manner of speaking. Publius Lentulus too, the father 
of the senate, had a sufficient share of eloquence for an honest 
and useful magistrate. About the same time Lucius Furius 
Philus was thought to speak our language as elegantly and 
more correctly than any other man ; Publius Scsevola to 
be very acute and 'judicious, and rather more fluent than 
Philus ; Manius Manilius to possess almost an equal share of 
judgment with the latter ; and Appius Claudius to be equally 
fluent, but more warm and pathetic. Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, 
and Caius Ca.to the nephew of Africanus, werehkewise tolerable 



432 BRUTUS; or, 

orators; some of the writings of Fiaccus are still in being, 
in which nothing, however, is to be seen but the mere scholar. 
Publius Decius was a professed rival of Fiaccus ; he too was 
not destitute of eloquence ; but his style was too bold, as his 
temper was too violent. Marcus Drusus, the son of Claudius, 
who, in his tribuneship, baffled^ his colleague Gracchus (then 
raised to the same office a second time), was a nervous 
speaker, and a man of great popularity : and next to him was 
his brother Caius Drusus. Your kinsman also, my Brutus, 
(Marcus Pennus,) successfully opposed the tribune Gracchus, 
who was something younger than himself. For Gracchus 
was quaestor, and Pennus (the son of that Marcus, who was 
joint consul with Quintus ^lius) was tribune, in the consul- 
ship of Marcus Lepidus and Lucius Orestes ; but after enjoy- 
ing the sedileship, and a prospect of succeeding to the highest 
honours, he was snatched off by an untimely death. As to 
Titus Flamininus, whom I myself have seen, I can learn 
nothing but that he spoke our language with great accuracy. 
XXIX. '^ To these we may join Caius Curio, Marcus 
Scaurus, Publius Eutilius, and Caius Gracchus. It will not 
be amiss to give a short account of Scaurus and Rutilius ; 
neither of whom, indeed, had the reputation of being a first- 
rate orator, though each of them pleaded a number of causes. 
But some deserving men, who were not remarkable for their 
genius, may be justly commended for their industry ; not 
that the persons I am speaking of were really destitute of 
genius, but only of that particular kind of it which distin- 
guishes the orator. For it is of little consequence to discover 
what is proper to be said, unless you are able to express it in 
a free and agreeable manner ; and even that will be insuffi- 
cient, if not recommended by the voice, the look, and the 
gesture. It is needless to add, that much depends upon art ; 
for though, even without this, it is possible, by the mere force 
of nature, to say many striking things ; yet, as they will after 
all be nothing more than so many lucky hits, we shall not be 
able to repeat them at our pleasure. The style of Scaurus, 
who was a very sensible and an honest man, was remarkably 

* Baffled, In the original it runs, Caiuw. Gracchum collegarriy iterum 
Trihunum, fecit : but this was undoubtedly a mistake of the tran- 
scriber, as being contrary not only to the truth of history, but to Cicero's 
own account of the matter in lib. iv. De Finibus. Pighius therefore 
has very properly recommended the word f regit instead oi fecit. 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 433 

grave, and commanded the respect of the hearer ; so that, 
when he was speaking for his client, you would rather have 
thought he was giving evidence in his favour, than pleading 
his cause. This manner of speaking, however, though but 
indifferently adapted to the bar, was very much so to a calm 
' debate in the senate, of which Scaurus was then esteemed the 
father ; for it not only bespoke his prudence, but, what was 
still a more important recommendation, his credibility. This 
advantage, which it is not easy to acquire by art, he derived 
entirely from nature ; though you know that even here we 
have some precepts to assist us. We have several of his 
orations still extant, and three books inscribed to Lucius 
Fufidius, containing the history of his own life, which, though 
a very useful work, is scarcely read by anybody. But the 
Institution of Cyrus, by Xenophon, is read by every one ; 
which, though an excellent performance of the kind, is much 
less adapted to our manners and form of government, and 
not superior in merit to the honest simplicity of Scaurus. 

XXX. '•' Fufidius himself was likewise a tolerable pleader ; 
but Eutilius was distinguished by his solemn and austere 
way of speakiijg ; and both of them were naturally warm 
and spirited. Accordingly, after they had rivalled eacli 
other for the consulship, he who had lost his election, imme- 
diately sued his competitor for bribery ; and Scaurus, the 
defendant, being honourably acquitted of the charge, re- 
turned the compliment to Rutilius, by commencing a similar 
prosecution against him. Rutilius was a man of great indus- 
try and application ; for w^hich he was the more respected, 
because, besides his pleadings, he undertook the office (which 
was a very troublesome one) of giving advice to all who 
applied to him, in matters of law. His orations are very dry. 
but his juridical remarks are excellent ; for he was a learned 
man, and well versed in the Greek literature, and w^as likewise 
an attentive and constant hearer of Pansetius, and a thorough 
proficient in the doctrine of the Stoics ; whose method of dis- 
coursing, though very close and artful, is too precise, and net 
at all adapted to engage the attention of common people. 
That self-confidence, therefore, which is so peculiar to the 
sect, was displayed by him with amazing firmness and resolu- 
tion ] for though he was perfectly innocent of the charge, a 
prosecution was commenced against him for bribery (a trial 
which raised a violent commotion in the city), and yet, 

F F 



434 BRUTUS ; or, 

though Lucius Crassus and Marcus Antonius, both of consu- 
lar dignity, were at that time in very high repute for their 
eloquence, he refused the assistance of either ; being deter- 
mined to plead his cause himself, which he accordingly did. 
Caius Cotta, indeed, who was his nephew, made a short 
speech in his vindication, which he spoke in the true style of 
an orator, though he was then but a youth. Quintus Mucins 
too said much in his defence, with his usual accuracy and 
elegance ; but not with that force and extension which the 
mode of trial and the importance of the cause demanded. 
E/Utilius, therefore, was an orator of the Stoical, and Scaurus 
of the Antique cast ; but they are both entitled to our com- 
mendation ; because, in them, even this formal and unpromising 
species of elocution has appeared among us with some degree 
of merit. For as in the theatre, so in the forum, I would not 
have our applause confined to those alone who act the busy 
and more important characters ; but reserve a share of it for 
the quiet and unambitious performer, w-ho is distinguished 
by a simple truth of gesture, without any violence. 

XXXI. " As I have mentioned the Stoics, I must take 
some notice of Quintus ^lius Tubero, the grandson of Lucius 
Paullus, who made his appearance at the time we are speaking 
of He was never esteemed an orator, but was a man of the 
most rigid virtue, and strictly conformable to the doctrine 
he professed ; but, in truth, he had not sufficient ease and 
polish. In his Triumvirate, he declared, contrary to the 
opinion of Publius Africanus his uncle, that the augurs had 
no right of exemption from sitting in the courts of justice ; and 
as in his temper, so in his manner of speaking, he was harsh, 
unpolished, and austere ; on which account, he could never 
raise himself to the honourable posts which were enjoyed by 
his ancestors. But he was a brave and steady citizen, and 
a warm opposer of Gracchus, as appears from Gracchus's 
oration against him ; we have likewise some of Tubero's 
speeches against Gracchus. He was not indeed a shining 
orator : but he was a learned and very skilful disputant." 
*' I find," said Brutus, " that the case is much the same among 
us, as with the Greeks ; and that the Stoics, in general, are 
very judicious at an argument, which they conduct by cer- 
tain rules of art, and are likewise very neat and exact in their 
langTiage ; but if we take them from this, to speak in public, 
they make a poor appearance. Cato, however, must be ex 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 435 

cepted ; in whom, though as rigid a Stoic as ever existed, I 
could not wish for a more consummate degree of eloquence. 
I can likewise discover a moderate share of it in Fannius, — 
not so much in Rutilius ; but none at all in Tubero." 
" Trae," said I ; " and we may easily account for it ; their 
whole attention was so closely confined to the study of logic, 
that they never troubled themselves to acquire the free, dif- 
fusive, and variegated style which is so necessary for a public 
speaker. But your uncle, you doubtless know, was wise 
enough to borrow only that from the Stoics which they were 
able to furnish for his purpose (the art of reasoning) ; but for 
the art of speaking, he had recourse to the masters of rhetoric, 
and exercised himself in the manner they directed. If, how- 
ever, we must be indebted for everything to the philosophers, 
the Peripatetic discipline is, in my mind, much the most proper 
to form our language. For which reason, my Brutus, I the 
more approve your choice, in attaching yourself to a sect, 
(I mean the philosophers of the old Academy,) in whose 
system a just and accurate way of reasoning is enlivened by 
a perpetual sweetness and fluency of expression; but even the 
delicate and flowmg style of the Peripatetics and Academics 
is not sufficient to complete an orator; nor yet can he be 
complete without it. For as the language of the Stoics is too 
close and contracted to suit the ears of common people, so 
that of the latter is too diffusive and luxuriant for a spirited 
contest in the forum, or a pleading at the bar. Who had 
a richer style than Plato ? The philosophers tell us, that if 
Jupiter himself was to converse in Greek, he would speak like 
him. Who also was more nervous than Aristotle ? Who 
sweeter than Theophrastus ? We are told that even Demo- 
sthenes attended the lectures of Plato, and was fond of reading 
what he published ; which, indeed, is sufficiently evident 
from the turn and majesty of his language; and he himself 
has expressly mentioned it in one of his letters. But the style 
of this excellent orator is, notwithstanding, much too violent 
for the academy ; as that of the philosophers is too mild and 
placid for the forum. 

XXXII. ^- I shall now, with your leave, proceed to the age 
and merits of the rest of the Roman orators." '' Nothing," said 
Atticus — ■" for I can safely answer for my friend Brutus — 
would please us better.'* •' Curio, then," said I, " was nearly of 
the age I have just mentioned ; a celebrated speaker, whose 

F F 2 



436 BRUTUS j OR, 

genius may be easily ascertained from his orations. For, 
among several others, we have a noble speech of his for Ser- 
vius Fulvius, in a prosecution for incest. When we were 
children, it was esteemed the best then extant ; but now it is 
almost overlooked among the numerous performances of the 
same kind which have been lately published." " I am very 
sensible," repHed Brutus, " to whom we are obliged for the 
numerous performances you speak of." '^ And I am equally 
sensible," said I, " who is the person you intend ; for I have 
at least done a service to my young countrymen, by intro- 
ducing a loftier and more embellished way of speaking than 
was used before ; and, perhaps, I have also done some 
harm, because after mine appeared, the speeches of our pre- 
decessors began to be neglected by most people ; though 
never by me, for I can assure you, I always prefer them to 
my own." ''- But you must reckon me," said Brutus, " among 
the most people; though I now see, from your recommenda- 
tion, that I have a great many books to read, of which before 
I had very little opinion." " But this celebrated oration," 
said I, '^ in the prosecution for incest, is in some places exces- 
sively puerile ; and what is said in it of the passion of love, 
the inefficacy of questioning by tortures, and the danger of 
trusting to common hearsay, is indeed pretty enough, but 
would be insufferable to the chastened ears of the moderns, 
and to a people who are justly distinguished for the solidity 
of their knowledge. He likewise wrote several other pieces, 
spoke a number of good orations, and was certainly an emi- 
nent pleader ; so that I much wonder, considering how long 
he lived and the character he bore, that he was never preferred 
to the consulship. 

XXXIII. *' But I have a man here,^ (Caius Gracchus,) who 
had an amazing genius, and the most ardent application ; 
and was a scholar from his very childhood ; for you must not 
imagine, my Brutus, that we have ever yet had a speaker 
whose language was richer and more copious than his." '•' I 
really think so," answered Brutus ; " and he is almost the 
only author we have, among the ancients, that I take the 
trouble to read." " And he well deserves it," said I ; " for the 
Roman name and literature were great losers by his untimely 

^ He refers, perhaps, to the works of Gracchus, which he might then 
have in his hand ; or, more probably, to a statue of him, which stood 
near the place where he and his friends were sitting. 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 437 

fate. I wish lie had transferred his affection for his brother 
to his country ! How easily, if he had thns prolonged his 
life, would he have rivalled the glory of his father and grand- 
father ! In eloquence, I scarcely know whether we should 
yet have had his equal. His language was noble ; his senti- 
ments manly and judicious ; and his whole manner great 
and striking. He wanted nothing but the finishing touch : 
for though his first attempts were as excellent as they were 
numerous, he did not live to complete them. In short, my 
Brutus, he, if any one, should be carefully studied by the 
Roman youth ; for he is able, not only to sharpen, but to 
enrich and ripen their talents. After him appeared Caius 
Galba, the son of the eloquent Servius, and the son-in-law of 
Publius Crassus, who was both an eminent speaker and 
a skilful civilian. He was much commended by our fathers, 
who respected him for the sake of his; but he had the mis- 
fortune to be stopped in his career. For being tried by the 
Mamilian law, as a party concerned in the conspiracy to sup- 
port Jugurtha, though he exerted all his abilities to defend 
himself, he was unhappily condemned. His peroration, or, 
as it is often called, his epilogue, is still extant ; and was so 
much in repute ; when we were schoolboys, that we used to 
learn it by heart ; he was the first member of the Sacerdotal 
College, since the building of Rome, who was publicly tried 
and condemned. 

XXXIY. " As to Publius Scipio, who died in his consul- 
ship, he neither spoke much, nor often ; but he was inferior 
to no one in pm'ity of language, and superior to all in wit 
and pleasantry. His colleague, Lucius Bestia, who began his 
tribuneship very successfully, (for, by a law which he preferred 
for the purpose, he procured the recal of Popillius, who 
had been exiled by the influence of Caius Gracchus,) was a 
man of spirit, and a tolerable speaker; but he did not finish 
his consulship equally happily. For, in consequence of the 
invidious law of Mamilius above-mentioned, Caius Galba, one 
of the priests, and the four consular gentlemen, Lucius 
Bestia, Caius Cato, Spurius Albinus, and that excellent citizen 
Lucius Opimius, who killed Gracchus, of which he was ac- 
quitted by the people, though he had constantly sided against 
them, were all condemned by their judges, who were of the 
Gracchan party. Yery unlike him in his tribuneship, and 
indeed in every other part of his life, was that infamous 



438 BRUTUS ; or, 

citizen Caius Licinius Nerva ; but he was not destitute of 
eloquence. Nearly at the same time (though, indeed, he was 
somewhat older) flourished Caius Fimbria, who was rathei 
rough and abusive, and much too warm and hasty; but hhi 
application, and his great integrity and firmness, made him a 
serviceable speaker in the senate. He was likewise a tolerable 
pleader and civilian, and distinguished by the same rigid 
freedom in the turn of his language, as in that of his vir- 
tues. When we were boys, we used to think his orations worth 
reading ; though they are now scarcely to be met with. But 
Caius Sextius Calvinus was equally elegant, both in his 
taste and his language, though, unhappily, of a very infirm 
constitution; when the pain in his feet intermitted, he did 
not decline the trouble of pleading, but he did not attempt it 
very often. His fellow-citizens, therefore, made, use of his 
advice, whenever they had occasion for it ; but of his patron- 
age, only when his health permitted. Contemporary with 
these, my good friend, was your namesake Marcus Brutus, 
the disgrace of your noble family ; who, though he bore that 
honourable name, and had the best of men and an eminent 
civilian for his father, confined his practice to accusations, as 
Lycurgus is said to have done at Athens. He never sued for 
any of our magistracies; but was a severe and a troublesome 
prosecutor; so that we easily see that, in him, the natural 
goodness of the stock was corrupted by the vicious inclina- 
tions of the man. At the same time lived Lucius Csesulenus, 
a man of plebeian rank, and a professed accuser, like the 
former; I myself heard him in his old age, when he endea- 
voured, by the Aquilian law, to subject Lucius Sabellius to a 
fine, for a breach of justice. But I should not have taken 
any notice of such a low-born wretch, if I had not thought 
that no person I ever heard, could give a more suspicious 
turn to the cause of the defendant, or exaggerate it to a 
higher degree of criminality. 

XXXy. '' Titus Albucius, who lived in the same age, 
was well versed in the Grecian literature, or, rather, was 
almost a Greek himself I speak of him as I think ; but 
any person who pleases may judge what he was by his 
orations. In his youth, he studied at Athens, and returned 
from thence a thorough proficient in the doctrine of Epicurus ; 
which, of all others, is the least adapted to form an orator. 
His contemporary, Quintus Catulus, was an accomplished 



REMARKS OX EMINENT OKATGiiS. 439 

speaker, not in the ancient taste, but (unless anything more 
perfect can be exhibited) in the finished style of the moderns. 
He had copious stores of learning; an easy, winning elegance, 
not only in his manners and disposition, but in his very lan- 
guage; and an unblemished purity and correctness of style. 
This may be easily seen by his orations; and particularly by 
the History of his Consulship, and of his subsequent trans- 
actions, which he composed in the soft and agreeable manner 
of Xenophon, and made a present of to the poet Aulus Furius, 
an intimate acquaintance of his. But this performance is as 
little known as the three books of Scaurus before-mentioned." 
" Indeed, I must confess," said Brutus, " that both the one and 
the other are perfectly unknown to me; but that is entirely 
my own fault. I shall now, therefore, reque^it a sight of them 
from you; and am resolved, in future, to be more careful in 
collecting such valuable curiosities." '' This Catulus," said 1, 
"as I have just observed, was distinguished by the purity of 
his language; w^hich, though a material accomplishment, 
is too much neglected by most of the Roman orators ; for as 
to the elegant tone of his voice, and the sweetness of his 
accent, as you knew his son, it will be needless to take 
any notice of them. His son, indeed, was not in the list 
of orators ; but whenever he had occasion to deliver his sen- 
timents in public, he neither wanted judgment, nor a neat 
and liberal turn of expression. Nay, even the father himself 
was not reckoned the foremost in the rank of orators; but 
still he had that kind of merit, that notwithstanding after 
you had heard two or three speakers who were particularly 
eminent in their profession, you might judge him inferior; 
yet, whenever you hear him alone, and without an immediate 
opportunity of making a comparison, you would not only be 
satisfied with him, but scarcely wish for a better advocate. 
As to Quintus Metellus Numidicus, and his colleague Marcus 
Silanus, they spoke, on matters of government, with as much 
eloquence as was really necessary for men of their illustrious 
character, and of consular dignity. But Marcus Aurelius 
Scaurus, though he spoke in public but seldom, always spoke 
very neatly, and he had a 'more elegant command of the 
Roman language than most men. Aulus Albinus was a 
speaker of the same kind; but Albinus the fiamen was 
esteemed an orator, Quintus Oaepio, too, had a great deal of 
spirit, and was a brave citizen; but the unlucky chance of 



4 10 BRUTUS ; OR, 

war was imputed to him as a crime, and the general odium 
of the people proved his ruin. 

XXXYI. " Caius and Lucius Memmius were likewise in- 
different orators, and distinguished by the bitterness and 
asperity of their accusations ; for they prosecuted many, but 
seldom spoke for the defendant. Spurius Thorius, on the 
other hand, was distinguished by his popular way of speak- 
ing ; the very same man who, by his corrupt and frivolous 
law, diminished ^ the taxes which were levied on the public 
lands. Marcus Marcellus, the father of ^serninus, though 
not reckoned a professed pleader, was a prompt, and, in some 
degree, a practised speaker ; as was also his son Publius Len- 
tulus. Lucius Cotta likewise, a man of praetorian rank, was 
esteemed a tolerable orator ; but he never made any great 
progress ; on the contrary, he purposely endeavoured, both in 
the choice of his words and the rusticity of his pronunciation, 
to imitate the manner of the ancients. I am indeed sensible 
that in this instance of Cotta, and in many others, I have and 
shall again insert in the list of orators those who, in reality, 
had but little claim to the character. For it was, professedly, 
my design to collect an account of all the Romans, without 
exception, who made it their business to excel in the profes- 
sion of eloquence ; and it may be easily seen from this account 
by what slow gradations they advanced, and how excessively 
difficult it is in everything to rise to the summit of perfec- 
tion. As a proof of this, how many orators have been already 
recounted, and how much time have we bestowed upon them, 
before we could ascend, after infinite fatigue and drudgery, 
as, among the Greeks, to Demosthenes and Hyperides, so 
now, among our own countrymen, to Antonius and Crassus! 
For, in my mind, these were consummate orators, and the 
first among the Romans whose diffusive eloquence rivalled the 
glory of the Greeks. 

XXX VII. '^Antonius comprehended everything which could 
be of service to his cause, and he arranged his materials in 
the most advantageous order; and as a skilful general posts 
the cavalry, the infantry, and the light troops, where each of 
them can act to most advantage, so Antonius drew up his 
arguments in those parts of his discourse, where they were 
likely to have the best effect. He had a quick and retentive 
memory, and a frankness of manner which precluded any 
^ By dividing great part of them among the people. 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 441 

suspicion of artifice. All his speeches were, in appearance, 
the unpremeditated effusions of an honest heart ; and yet, in 
reality, they were preconcerted with so much skill, that the 
judges were sometimes not so well prepared as they should 
have been, to withstand the force of them. His language, 
indeed, was not so refined as to pass for the standard of ele- 
gance ; for which reason he was thought to be rather a care- 
less speaker; and yet, on the other hand, it was neither 
vulgar nor incorrect, but of that solid and judicious turn 
which constitutes the real merit of an orator, as to the choice 
of his words. For, though a purity of style is certainly, as 
has been observed, a very commendable quality, it is not so 
much so for its intrinsic consequence, as because it is too gene- 
rally neglected. In short, it is not so meritorious to speak our 
native tongue correctly, as it is disgraceful to speak it other- 
wise ; nor is it so much the characteristic of a good orator as 
of a well-bred citizen. But in the choice of his words (in 
which he had more regard to their weight than their bril- 
liance), and likewise in the structure of his language and the 
compass of his periods, Antonius conformed himself to the 
dictates of reason, and, in a great measure, to the nicer rules 
of art; though his chief excellence was a judicious manage- 
ment of the figures and decorations of sentiment. This was 
likewise the distinguishing excellence of Demosthenes; in 
which he was so far superior to all others, as to be allowed, 
in the opinion of the best judges, to be the prince of orators. 
For the figures (as they are called by the Greeks) are the 
principal ornaments of an able speaker ; — I mean those which 
contribute not so much to paint and embellish our language, 
as to give a lustre to our sentiments. 

XXXYIII. "But besides these, of which Antonius had a 
great command, he had a peculiar excellence in his manner of 
delivery, both as to his voice and gesture ; for the latter was 
such as to correspond to the meaning of every sentence, 
without beating time to the words. His hands, his shoulders, 
the turn of his body, the stamp of his foot, his posture, his 
air, and, in short, all his motions, were adapted to his language 
and sentiments; and his voice was strong and firm, though 
naturally hoarse, — a defect which he alone was capable of 
improving to his advantage ; for in capital causes, it had 
a mournful dignity of accent, which was exceedingly proper^ 
both to win the assent of the judges, and excite their com- 



442 BRUTUS ; or, 

passion for a suffering client ; so that in him the observation 
of Demosthenes v^as eminently verified; who, being asked 
what was the first quality of a good orator, what the second, 
and what the third, constantly replied, ' K good enunciation.' 
But many thought that he was equalled, and others that he 
was even excelled, by Lucius Crassus. All, however, were 
agreed in this, that whoever had either of them for his advo- 
cate, had no cause to wish for a better. For my own part, 
notwithstanding the uncommon merit I have ascribed to 
Antonius, I must also acknowledge, that there cannot be 
a more finished character than that of Crassus. He pos- 
sessed a wonderful dignity of elocution, with an agreeable 
mixture of wit and pleasantry, which was perfectly polished, 
and without the smallest tincture of scurrility. His style 
was correct and elegant, without stiffness or affectation; his 
method of reasoning was remarkably clear and distinct ; and 
when his cause turned upon any point of law or equity, he 
had an inexhaustible fund of arguments and comparative 
illustrations. 

XXXIX. " For as Antonius had an admirable turn for sug- 
gesting apposite hints, and either suppressing or exciting the 
suspicions of the hearer, so no man could explain and define, 
or discuss a point of equity, with a more copious facility 
than Crassus ; as sufficiently appeared upon many other 
occasions, but particularly in the cause of Manius Carius, 
which was tried before the Centumviri. For he urged a great 
variety of arguments in the defence of right and equity, 
against the liiQVdljuhet of the law; and supported them by 
such a numerous series of precedents, that he overpowered 
Quintus Scaevola (a man of uncommon penetration, and the 
ablest civilian of his time), though the case before them was 
only a matter of legal right. But the cause was so ably 
managed by the two advocates, who were nearly of an age, 
and both of consular rank, that while each endeavoured to 
interpret the law in favour of his client, Crassus was univer- 
sally allowed to be the best lawyer among the orators, and 
Scsevola to be the most eloquent civilian of the age ; for the 
latter could not only discover with the nicest precision what 
was agreeable to law and equity, but had likewise a concise- 
ness and propriety of expression, which was admirably adapted 
to his purpose. In short, he had such a wonderful vein of 
oratory in commenting, explaining, and discussing, that I 



I 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 443 



never beheld his equal ; though in amplifying, embellishing, 
and refuting, he was rather to be dreaded as a formidable 
critic, than admired as an eloquent speaker." 

XL. " Indeed," said Brutus, " though I always thought I 
sufficiently understood the character of Scsevola, by the 
account I had heard of him from Caius Rutilius, whose 
company I frequented for the sake of his acquaintance with 
him, I had not the least idea of his merit as an orator. I 
am now, therefore, not a little pleased to be informed, that 
our republic has had the honour of producing so accom- 
plished a man, and such an excellent genius." " Really, my 
Brutus," said I, '* you may take it from me, that the Roman 
state had never been adorned w^ith two finer characters than 
these. For, as I have before observed that the one was the 
best lawyer among the orators, and the other the best speaker 
among the civilians of his time; so the difference between 
them, in all other respects, was of such a nature, that it 
would almost be impossible for you to determine which of 
the two you would rather choose to resemble. For, as 
Crassus was the closest of all our elegant speakers, so Scsevola 
was the most elegant among those who w^ere distinguished 
by the concise accuracy of their language ; and as Crassus 
tempered his affability with a proper share of severity, so 
the rigid air of Scsevola was not destitute of the milder 
graces of an affable condescension. Though this was really 
their character, it is very possible that I may be thought to 
have embellished it beyond the bounds of truth, to give an 
agreeable air to my narrative; but as your favourite sect, 
my Brutus, the old Academy, has defined all virtue to be 
a just mediocrity, it was the constant endeavour of these two 
eminent men to pursue this golden mean ; and yet it so hap- 
pened, that while each of them shared a part of the other's 
excellence, he preserved his own entire." ^' To speak what 
I think," replied Brutus, " I have not only acquired a proper 
acquaintance with their characters from your account of 
them, but I can likewise discover, that the same comparison 
might be drawn between you and Servius Sulpicius, which 
you have just been making between Crassus and Scsevola." 
"In what manner?" said I. " Because you'' replied Brutus, 
" have taken the pains to acquire as extensive a knowledge of 
the law as is necessary for an orator; and Sulpicius, on the 
other hand, took care to furnish himself with sufficient 



444 BRUTUS ; on, 

eloquence to support the character of an able civilian. 
Besides, your age corresponded as nearly to his, as the age of 
Crassus did to that of Scaevola." 

XLT. ^^ As to my own abilities," said I, " the rules of 
decency forbid me to speak of them ; but your character of 
Servius is a very just one, and I may freely tell you what I 
think of him. There are few, I believe, who have applied 
themselves more assiduously to the art of speaking than he 
did, or indeed to the study of every useful science. In our 
youth, we both of us followed the same liberal exercises ; and 
he afterwards accompanied me to Rhodes, to pursue those 
studies which might equally improve him as a man and a 
scholar; biit when he returned from thence, he appears to 
me to have been rather ambitious of being the foremost 
man in a secondary profession, than the second in that which 
claims the highest dignity. I will not pretend to say, that 
he could not have ranked himself among the first in the 
latter profession; but he rather chose to be, what he actually 
made himself, the first lawyer of his time." " Indeed ! " 
said Brutus : " and do you really prefer Servius to Quintus 
ScaevolaT' "My opinion," said I, "Brutus, is, that Quintus 
Scaevola and many others had a thorough practical know- 
ledge of the law ; but that Servius alone understood it as 
a science; which he could never have done by the mere study 
of the law, and without a previous acquaintance with the 
art, which teaches us to divide a whole into its subordinate 
parts, to explain an indeterminate idea by an accurate defini- 
tion; to illustrate what is obscure by a clear interpretation; 
and first to discover what things are of a doubtful nature, 
then to distinguish them by their different degrees of proba- 
bihty; and, lastly, to be provided with a certain rule or 
measure by which we may judge what is true, and what 
false, and what inferences fairly may or may not be deduced 
from any given premises. This important art he applied to 
those subjects which, for want of it, were necessarily managed 
by others without due order and precision." 

XLIL "You mean, I suppose," said Brutus, "the art of 
logic." " You suppose very rightly," answered I ; " but he 
added to it an extensive acquaintance with polite literature, 
and an elegant manner of expressing himself; as is suffi- 
ciently evident from the incomparable writings he has left 
behind him. And as he attached himself, for the improve- 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 445 

ment of his eloquence, to Lucius Lucilius Balbus and Caius 
Aquilius Gallus, two very able speakers, he effectually thwarted 
the prompt celerity of the latter (though a keen, experienced 
man) both in supporting and refuting a charge, by his ac- 
curacy and precision, and overpowered the deliberate formality 
of Balbus (a man of great learning and erudition) by his 
adroit and dexterous method of arguing ; so that he equally 
possessed the good qualities of both, without their defects. 
As Crassus, therefore, in my mind, acted more prudently 
than Scsevola; (for the latter was very fond of pleading 
causes, in which he was certainly inferior to Crassus; whereas 
the former never engaged himself in an unequal competition 
with Scsevola, by assuming the character of a civilian;) so 
Servius pursued a plan which sufficiently discovered his 
wisdom ; for as the profession of a pleader and a lawyer are 
both of them held in great esteem, and give those w^ho are 
masters of them the most extensive influence among their 
fellow- citizens, he acquired an undisputed superiority in the 
one, and improved himself as much in the other as was 
necessary to support the authority of the civil law, and 
promote him to the dignity of consul." " This is precisely 
the opinion I had formed of him," said Brutus. '' For a few 
years ago I heard him often, and very attentively, at Samos, 
when I wanted to be instructed by him in the pontifical 
law, as far as it is connected with the civil; and I am now 
greatly confirmed in my opinion of him, by finding that it 
coincides so exactly with yours. I am likewise not a little 
pleased to observe, that the equality of your ages, your 
sharing the same honours and preferments, and the affinity 
of your respective studies and professions, has been so far 
from precipitating either of you into that envious detraction 
of the other's merit, which most people are tormented with, 
that, instead of interrupting your mutual friendship, it has 
only served to increase and strengthen it; for, to my own 
knowledge, he had the same affection for, and the same 
favourable sentiments of you, which I now discover in you 
towards him. I cannot, therefore, help regretting very sin- 
cerely, that the Roman state has so long been deprived of 
the benefit of his advice and of your eloquence ; a circum- 
stance which is indeed calamitous enough in itself, but must 
appear much more so to him who considers into what hands 
that once respectable authority has been of late, I will not 



446 BRUTUS ; or, 

say transferred, but forcibly wrested." " You certainly 
forget," said Atticus, ^^that I proposed, when we began the 
conversation, to drop all matters of state ; by all means, 
therefore, let us keep to our plan; for if we once begin to 
repeat our grievances, there will be no end, I need not say 
to our inquiries, but to our sighs and lamentations." 

XLIII. ''Let us proceed, then," said I, "without any 
i^lrther digression, and pursue the plan we set out upon. 
Crassus (for he is the orator we were just speaking of) always 
came into the forum ready prepared for the combat. He 
was expected with impatience, and heard with pleasure. 
When he first began his oration (which he always did in 
a very accurate style), he seemed worthy of the great ex- 
pectations he had raised. He was very moderate in the 
movements of his body, had no remarkable variation of 
voice, never advanced from the ground he stood upon, and 
seldom stamped his foot ; his language was forcible, and 
sometimes warm and pathetic; he had many strokes of 
humour, which were always tempered with a becoming 
dignity ; and, what is difficult to attain, he was at once very 
florid and very concise. In a close contest, he never met 
with his equal ; and there was scarcely any kind of causes in 
which he had not signalised his abilities; so that he enrolled 
himself very early among the first orators of the time. He 
accused Caius Carbo, though a man of great eloquence, when 
he was but a youth; and displayed his talents in such a 
manner, that they were not only applauded, but admired by . 
everybody. He afterwards defended the virgin Licinia, 
when he was only twenty-seven years of age; on which 
occasion he discovered an uncommon share of eloquence, as 
is evident from those parts of his oration which he left 
behind him in writing. As he was then desirous to have the 
honour of settling the colony of Narbonne (as he afterwards 
did), he thought it advisable to recommend himself by under- 
taking the management of some popular cause. His oration 
in support of the act which was proposed for that purpose, is 
still extant ; and discovers a greater maturity of genius than 
might have been expected at that time of life. He afterwards 
pleaded many other causes; but his tribuneship was so re- 
markably silent, that if he had not supped with Granius the 
beadle when he enjoyed that office (a circumstance which 
has been twice mentioned by Lwcilius), we should scarcely 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 447 

have kno^'n that a tribune of that name had existed.'* " I 
believe so," replied Brutus; ''but. I have heard as little of 
the tribuneship of Sc£evola, though I must naturally suppose 
that he was the colleague of Crassus." " He was so," said I, 
'' in all his other preferments ; but he was not tribune till 
the year after him ; and when he sat in the rostrum in that 
capacity, Crassus spoke in support of the Servilian law. I 
must observe, however, that Crassus had not Scsevola for his 
colleague in the censorship; for none of the Scaevolas ever 
solicited that office. But when the last-mentioned oration of 
Crassus was published (which I dare say you have frequently 
read), he was thirty-four years of age, which was exactly the 
difference between his age and mine. For he supported the 
law I have just been speaking of, in the very consulship 
under which I was born; whereas he himself was born in 
the consulship of Quintus Csepio and Caius Laelius, about 
three years later than Antonius. I have particularly noticed 
this circumstance, to specify the time when the Roman 
eloquence attained its first maturity; and was actually car- 
ried to such a degree of perfection, as to leave no room for 
any one to carry it higher, unless by the assistance of a more 
complete and extensive knowledge of philosophy, jurispru- 
dence, and history." 

XLIV. "But does there," said Brutus, " or will there ever 
exist a man, who is furnished with all the united accomplish- 
ments you required' ''I really do not know," said I; "but 
we have a speech made by Crassus in his consulship, in praise 
of Quintus Csepio, intermingled with a defence of his conduct, 
which, though a short one if we consider it as an oration, is 
not so as a panegyric; and another, which was his last, 
and which he spoke in the forty-eighth year of his age, at 
the time he was censor. In these we have the genuine com- 
plexion of eloquence, without any painting or disguise ; but 
his periods (I mean those of Crassus) were generally short 
and concise; and he was fond of expressing himself in those 
minuter sentences, or members, which the Greeks call colons" 
" As you have spoken so largely," said Brutus, " in praise of 
the two last-mentioned orators, I heartily wish that Antonius 
had left us some other specimen of his abilities than his 
trifling essay on the art of speaking, and Crassus more than 
he has; by so doing, they would have transmitted their fame 
to posterity, and to us a valuable system of eloquence. For as 



448 BRUTUS; or, 

to the elegant language of Scaevola, we have sufficient proofs 
of it in the orations he has left behind him." '^ For my 
part," said I, "the oration I was speaking of, on Csepio's 
case, has been a model which served to instruct me from my 
very childhood. It supports the dignity of the senate, which 
was deeply interested in the debate; and excites the jealousy 
of the audience against the party of the judges and accusers, 
whose powers it was necessary to expose in the most popular 
. terms. Many parts of it are very strong and nervous ; maoy 
others very cool and composed; and some are distinguished 
by the asperity of their language, and not a few by their wit 
and pleasantry : but much more was said than was committed 
to writing, as is sufficiently evident from several heads of 
the oration, which are merely proposed without any enlarge- 
ment or explanation. But the oration in his censorship 
aga^inst his colleague Cneius Domitius, is not so much an 
oration as an analysis of the subject, or a general sketch of 
what he had said, with here and there a few ornamental 
touches, by way of specimen; for no contest was ever con- 
ducted with greater spirit than this. Crassus, however, was 
eminently distinguished by the popular turn of his language ; 
but that of Antonius was better adapted to judicial trials 
than to a public debate. 

XLY. " As we have had occasion to mention him, Domitius 
himself must not be left unnoticed; for though he is not 
enrolled in the list of orators, he had a sufficient share, both 
of utterance and genius, to support his character as a magis- 
trate, and his dignity as a consul. I might likewise observe 
of Caius Cselius, that he was a man of great application and 
many eminent qualities, and had eloquence enough to support 
the private interests of his friends, and his own dignity in 
the state. At the same time lived Marcus Herennius, who 
was reckoned among the middling orators, whose principal 
merit was the purity and correctness of their language ; and 
yet, in a suit for the consulship, he got the better of Lucius 
Philippus, a man of the first rank and family, and of the 
most extensive connexions, and who was likewise a member 
of the college, and a very eloquent speaker. Then also lived 
Caius Clodius, who, besides his consequence as a nobleman of 
the first distinction and a man of the most powerful influence, 
was likewise possessed of a moderate share of eloquence. 
Nearly of the same age was Caius Titius. a Roman knight, 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 44& 

who, in mj judgment, arrived at as high a degree of per- 
fection as a Roman orator was able to do, without the assist- 
ance of the Grecian literature, and a good share of practice. 
His orations have so many delicate turns, such a number of 
well-chosen examples, and such an agreeable vein of polite- 
ness, that they almost seem to have been composed in the 
true Attic style. He likewise transferred his delicacies into 
his tragedies, with ingenuity enough, I confess, but not in 
the tragic taste. But the poet Lucius Afranius, whom he 
studiously imitated, was a very lively writer, and, as you 
well know, possessed great dramatic eloquence. Quintus 
Rubrius Yarro, who with Caius Marius was declared an 
enemy by the senate, was likewise a warm and very spirited 
prosecutor. My relation, Marcus Gratidius, was a plausible 
speaker of the same kind, well versed in Grecian literature, 
formed by nature for the profession of eloquence, and an 
intimate acquaintance of Marcus Antonius; he commanded 
under him in Cilicia, where he lost his life; and he once 
commenced a prosecution against Caius Fimbria, the father 
of Marcus Marius Gratidianus. 

XLYI. " There have likewise been several among the 
allies, and the Latins, who were esteemed good orators; as, 
for instance, Quintus Yettius of Yettium, one of the Marsi, 
whom I myself was acquainted with, a man of sense, and 
a concise speaker ; the Yalerii, Quintus and Decimus, of Sora, 
my neighbours and acquaintances, who were not so remark- 
able for their talent in speaking, as for their skill both in 
Greek and Roman literature ; and Caius Rusticellus of 
Bononia, an experienced orator, and a man of great natural 
volubility. But the most eloquent of all those w^ho were not 
citizens of Rome, was Tiberius Betucius Barrus of Asculum, 
some of whose orations, which were spoken in that city, are 
still extant ; that which he made at Rome against Csepio, is 
really excellent ; the speech which Csepio delivered in answer 
to it, was made by ^lius, who composed a number of orations, 
but pronounced none himself. But among those of a re- 
moter date, Lucius Papirius of Fregellse in Latium, who was 
almost contemporary with Tiberius Gracchus, w^as universally 
esteemed the most eloquent ; w^e have a speech of his in vin- 
dication of the Fregellans, and the Latin colonies, which was 
delivered before the senate." '^ And what then is the merit," 
said Brutus, " which you mean to ascribe to these provincial 



450 BRUTUS j OR, 

orators ?" "What else/' replied I, " but the very same which 
I have ascribed to the city orators ; excepting that their lan- 
guage is not tinctured with the same fashionable delicacy." 
"What fashionable delicacy do you mean?" said he. "I 
cannot/' said I, " pretend to define it; I only know that 
there is such a quality existing. When you go to your pro- 
vince in Gaul, you will be convinced of it. You will there 
find many expressions which are not current in Rome ; but 
these may be easily changed, and corrected. But what is of 
greater importance, our orators have a particular accent in 
their manner of pronouncing, which is more elegant, and has 
a more agreeable effect than any other. This, however, is 
not peculiar to the orators, but is equally common to every 
well-bred citizen. I myself remember that Titus Tineas, of 
Placentia, who was a very facetious man, once engaged in 
raillery with my old friend Quintus Granius, the public 
crier." '^ Do you mean that Granius," said Brutus, *^ of whom 
Lucilius has related such a number of stories 1: " " The very 
same," said I ; " but though Tineas said as many smart 
things as the other, Granius at last overpowered him by a 
certain vernacular gout, which gave an additional relish to his 
humour ; so that I am no longer surprised at what is said to 
have happened to Theophrastus, when he inquired of an old 
woman who kept a stall, what was the price of something 
which he wanted to purchase. After telling him the value of 
it, * Honest stranger,' said she, ' I cannot afford it for less;' an 
answer which nettled him not a little, to think that he who 
had resided almost all his life at Athens, and spoke the lan- 
guage very correctly, should be taken at last for a foreigner. 
Ill the same manner, there is, in my opinion, a certain accent 
as peculiar to the native citizens of Rome, as the other was to 
those of Athens. But it is time for us to return home ; I 
mean, to the orators of our own growth. 

XL VII. " Next, therefore, to the two capital speakers 
above-mentioned, (that is, Crassus andAntonius,) came Lucius 
Pliilippus, — not indeed till a considerable time afterwards; 
but still he must be reckoned the next. I do not mean, 
however, though nobody appeared in the interim who could 
dispute the prize with him, that he was entitled to the 
second, or even the third post of honour. For as in a chariot- 
race I cannot properly consider him as either the second or 
third winner, who has scarcely got clear of the stai'ting-post. 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 4ol 

before the first has reached the goal; so. among orators^, I 
can scarcely honour him with the name of a competitor, who 
has been so far distanced by the foremost as hardly to appear 
on the same ground with him. But yet there were certainly 
some talents to be observed in Philippus, which any person 
who considers them, without subjecting them to a comparison 
with the superior merits of the two before-mentioned, must 
allow to have been respectable. He had an uncommon free- 
dom of address, a large fund of humour, great facility in the 
invention of his sentiments, and a ready and easy manner of 
expressing them. He was likewise, for the time he lived in, 
a great adept in the literature of the Greeks ; and, in the heat 
of a debate, he could sting, and lash, as well as ridicule his 
opponents. Almost contemporary with these was Lucius 
Gellius, who was not so much to be valued for his positive, 
as for his negative merits ; for he was neither destitute of 
learning, nor invention, nor unacquainted with the history 
and the laws of his country ; besides which, he had a tolerable 
freedom of expression. But he happened to live at a tinae 
when many excellent orators made their appearance ; and yet 
he served his friends upon many occasions to good purpose ;, 
in short, his life was so long, that he was successively con- 
temporary with a variety of orators of different periods, anc? 
had an extensive series of practice in judicial causes. JS^early 
at the same time lived Decimus Brutus, who was fellow- 
consul with Mamercus ; and was equally skilled both in the 
Grecian and Eoman literature. Lucius Scipio likewise was 
not an unskilful speaker ; and Cnseus Pompeius, the son of 
Sextus, had some reputation as an orator ; for his brother 
Sextus applied the excellent genius he was possessed of, to 
acquire a thorough knowledge of the civil law, and a complete 
acquaintance with geometry and the doctrine of the Stoics. 
A little before these, Marcus Brutus, and very soon after 
him Caius Bilienus, who was a man of great natural capacity, 
made themselves, by nearly the same application, equally 
eminent in the profession of the law ; the latter would have 
been chosen consul, if he had not been thwarted by the 
repeated promotion of ^larius, and some other collateral em- 
barrassments which attended his suit. But the eloquence of 
Cneeus Octavius, which was wholly unknown before his 
elevation to the consulship, was effectually displayed, after his 
preferment to tha.t office, in a great variety of speecLec. It is. 

G G 2 



4:52 BRUTUS; oRj 

however, time for us to drop those who were only classed in 
the number of good speakers, and turn our attention to such 
as were really orators.'''' 

" I think so too," replied Atticus ; " for I understood that 
you meant to give us an account, not of those who took great 
pains to be eloquent, but of those who were so in reality." 

XIjYIII. '^ Caius Julius then," said I, " (the son of Lucius,) 
was certainly superior, not only to his predecessors, but to all 
his contemporaries, in wit and humour; he was not, indeed, 
a nervous and striking orator, but, in the elegance, the plea- 
santry, and the agreeableness of his manner, he has not been 
excelled by any man. There are some orations of his still 
extant, in which, as well as in his tragedies, we may discover 
a pleasing tranquillity of expression with very little energy. 
Publius Cethegus, his equal in age, had always enough to say 
on matters of civil regulation ; for he had studied and com- 
prehended them with the minutest accuracy ; by which 
means he acquired an equal authority in the senate with those 
who had served the office of consul, and though he made no 
figure in a public debate, he was a serviceable veteran in any 
suit of a private nature. Quintus Lucretius Yispillo was an 
acute speaker, and a good civilian in the same kind of 
causes ; but Osella was better qualified for a public harangue 
than to conduct a judicial process. Titus Annius Velina 
was likewise a man of sense, and a tolerable pleader ; and 
Titus Juventius had a gTeat deal of practice in the same 
way : the latter mdeed was rather too heavy and inani- 
mate, but at the same time was keen and artful, and 
knew how to seize every advantage which was offered by his 
antagonist; to which we may add, that he was far from 
being a man of no literature, but had an extensive knowledge 
of the civil law. His scholar, Publius Orbius, who was almost 
contemporary with me, had no great practice as a pleader ; 
but his skill in the civil law was in no respect inferior to his 
master's. As to Titus Aufidius, who lived to a great age, he 
was a professed imitator of both ; and was indeed a worthy 
inoffensive man; but he seldom spoke at the bar. His 
brother, Marcus Yirgilius, who, when he was a tribune of the 
people, commenced a prosecution against Lucius Sjdla, then 
advanced to the rank of general, had as little practice as Aufi- 
dius. Yirgilius's colleague, Publius Magius, was more copious 
and diffusive. But of all the orators, or rather ranters, I ever 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 453 

knew, who were totally illiterate and unpolished, and (I roight 
have added) absolutely coarse and rustic, the readiest and 
keenest were Quintus Sertorius, and Cains Gorgonius, the 
one of consular, and the other of equestrian rank. Titus 
Junius (the son of Lucius), who had served the office of tri- 
bune, and prosecuted and convicted Publius Sextius of bribery, 
when he was praetor elect, was a prompt and an easy speaker ; 
he lived in great splendour, and had a very promising genius ; 
and, if he had not been of a weak, and indeed a sickly con- 
stitution, he would have advanced much further than he did 
in the road to preferment. 

XLIX. " I am sensible, however, that in the account I 
have been giving, I have included many who were neither 
real, nor reputed orators ; and that I have omitted others, 
among those of a remoter date, who well deserved not only to 
have been mentioned, but to be recorded with honour. But 
this I was forced to do, for want of better information; for 
what could I say concerning men of a distant age, none of 
whose productions are now remaining, and of whom no 
mention is made in the writings of other people ? But I have 
omitted none of those who have fallen within the compass of 
my own knowledge, or that I myself remember to have 
heard. For I wish to make it appear, that in such a powerful 
and ancient republic as ours, in which the greatest rewards 
have been proposed to eloquence, though all have desired to 
be good speakers, not many have attempted the task, and but 
very few have succeeded. But I shall give my opinion of 
every one in such explicit terms, that it may be easily under- 
stood whom I consider as a mere declaimer, and whom as an 
orator. About the same time, or rather something later than 
the above-mentioned Julius, but almost contemporary with 
each other, were Caius Cotta, Publius Sulpicius, Quintus 
Varius, Cnseus Pomponius, Caius Curio, Lucius Fufius, Mar- 
cus Drusus, and Publius Antistius ; for no age whatsoever 
has been distinguished by a more numerous progeny of 
orators. Of these, Cotta and Sulpicius, both in my opinion 
and in that of the public at large, had an evident claim to the 
preference." '' But wherefore," interrupted Atticus, " do you 
say, in your own opinion^ and in that of the public at -large] 
In deciding the merits of an orator, does the opinion of the 
vulgar, think you, always coincide with that of the learned ? 
Or rather, does not one receive the approbation of the populace, 



454: BRUTUS j OR, 

while another of a quite opposite character is preferred by 
those who are better quahfied to give their j udgment 1 " " You 
have started a very pertinent question," said I ; ^^but, perhaps, 
the public at large will not approve my answer to it." '- And 
what concern need that give you," replied Atticus, " if it meets 
the approbation of Brutus f " Very true," said I ; " for I had 
rather my sentiments on the qualifications of an orator should 
please you and Brutus, than all the world besides ; but as to 
my eloquence, I should wish this to please every one. For he 
who speaks in such a manner as to please the people, must 
inevitably receive the approbation of the learned. As to the 
truth and propriety of what I hear, I am indeed to judge of 
this for myself, as well as I am able ; but the general merit 
of an orator must and will be decided by the effects which his 
eloquence produces. For (in my opinion at least) there are 
three things which an orator should be able to effect ; viz. 
to inform his hearers, to please them, and to move their 
passions. By what qualities in the speaker each of these 
effects may be produced, or by what deficiencies they are 
either lost, or but imperfectly performed, is an inquiry which 
none but an artist can resolve ; but whether an audience is 
really so affected by an orator as shall best answer his pur- 
pose, must be left to their own feelings, and the decision 
of the public. The learned therefore, and the people at large, 
have never disagreed about who was a good orator, and who 
was otherwise. 

L. " For do you suppose, that while the speakers above- 
mentioned were in being, they had not the same degree of 
reputation among the learned as among the populace ? If you 
had inquired of one of the latter, who was the most eloquent 
man in the city, he might have hesitated whether to say 
Antonius or Crassus; or this man, perhaps, would have men- 
tioned the one, and that the other. But would any one have 
given the preference to Fhilippus, though otherwise a smooth, 
a sensible, and a facetious speaker? — that Fhilippus whom 
we, who form our judgment upon these matters by rules of 
art, have decided to have been the next in merit ? Nobody 
would, I am certain. For it is the invariable prerogative of 
an accomplished orator, to be reckoned such in the opinion 
of the people. Though Antigenidas, therefore, the musician, 
might say to his scholar, who was but coldly received by th« 
public. Flay on, to please me and the Muses; I shall say t4 



REMARKS ON EMINENT OEATORS. 455 

my friend Brutus, when he mounts the rostra, as he frequently 
does, Play to me and the people; that those who hear him 
may be sensible of the effect of his eloquence, while I can 
likewise amuse myself with remarkiug the causes which pro- 
duce it. When a citizen hears an able orator, he readily 
credits what is said ; he imagines everything to be true, he 
believes and relishes the force of it ; and, in short, the per- 
suasive language of the speaker wins his absolute, his hearty 
assent. You, who are possessed of a critical knowledge of the 
art, what more will you require ? The listening multitude is 
charmed and captivated by the force of his eloquence, and 
feels a pleasure which is not to be resisted. What here can 
you find to censure '? The whole audience is either flushed 
with joy, or overwhelmed with grief; it smiles or weeps, 
it loves or hates, it scorns or envies, and, in short, is 
alternately seized with the various emotions of pity, shame, 
remorse, resentment, wonder, hope, and fear, according as it 
is influenced by the language, the sentiments, and the action 
of the speaker. In this case, what necessity is there to await 
the sanction of a critic ? For here, whatever is approved by 
the feelings of the people, must be equally so by men of 
taste and erudition ; and, in this instance of public decision, 
there can be no disagreem'ent between the opinion of the 
vulgar, and that of the learned. For though many good 
speakers have appeared in every species of oratory, which of 
them who was thought to excel the rest in the judgment 
of the populace, was not approved as such by every m.an of 
learning'? or which of our ancestors, when the choice of 
a pleader was left to his own option, did not immediately fix 
it either upon Crassus or Antonius ? There were certainly 
many others to be had; but though any person might have 
hesitated to which of the above two he should give the pre- 
ference, there was nobody, I believe, who would have made 
choice of a third. And in the time of my youth, w^hen Cotta 
and Hortensius w^ere in such high reputation, who, that had 
liberty to choose for himself, would have employed any other?" 
LI. '^ But what occasion is there," said Brutus, " to quote 
the example of other speakers to support your assertion 1 
have we not seen what has always been the wish of the de- 
fendant, and what the judgment of Hortensius, concerning 
yourself ? for whenever the latter shared a cause with you, 
(and I w^as often present on those occasions,) the peroration, 



456 



BRUTUS ; OR, 



which requires the greatest exertion of the powers of elo- 
quence, was constantly left to yoiiP " It was/' said I ; " and 
Hortensius (induced, I suppose, by the warmth of his friend- 
ship) always resigned the post of honour to me. But, as to 
myself, what rank I hold in the opinion of the people I am 
unable to determine ; as to others, however, I may safely 
assert, that such of them as were reckoned most eloquent in 
the judgment of the vulgar, were equally high in the esti- 
mation of the learned. For even Demosthenes himself could 
not have said what is related of Antimachus, a poet of Claros, 
who, when he was rehearsing to an audience, assembled for 
the purpose, that voluminous piece of his which you are well 
acquainted with, and was deserted by all his hearers except 
Plato, in the midst of his performance, cried out, / shall 'pro- 
ceed notwithstanding ; for Plato alone is of more consequence 
to me than many thousands. The remark was very just. For 
an abstruse poem, such as his, only requires the approbation 
of the judicious few ; but a discourse intended for the people 
should be perfectly suited to their taste. If Demosthenes, 
therefore, after being deserted by the rest of his audience, 
had even Plato left to hear him, and no one else, I will 
answer for it, he could not have uttered another syllable. Nor 
could you yourself, my Brutus, if the whole assembly were to 
leave you, as it once did Curio ?" " To open my whole mind 
to you," replied he, " I must confess that even in such causes 
as fall under the cognisance of a few select judges, and not of 
the people at large, if I were to be deserted by the casual 
crowd who came to hear the trial, I should not be able to 
proceed." " The case, then, is plainly this," said I : "as a 
flute, which will not return its proper sound when it is applied 
to the lips, would be laid aside by the musician as useless ; 
so, the ears of the people are the instrument upon which an 
orator is to play ; and if these refuse to admit the breath he 
bestows upon them, or if the hearer, like a restive horse, will 
not obey the spur, the speaker must cease to exert himself 
any further. 

LII. " There is, however, this exception to be made ; the 
people sometimes give their approbation to an orator who 
does not deserve it. But even here they approve what they 
have had no opportunity of comparing with something better ; 
as, for instance, when they are pleased with an indifferent, or, 
perhaps, a bad speaker. His abilities satisfy their expectation j 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 457 

the J have seen nothing preferable ; and, therefore, the merit 
of the day, whatever it may happen to be, meets their full 
applause. For even a middling orator, if he is possessed of 
any degree of eloquence, will always captivate the ear ; and 
the order and beauty of a good discourse has an astonishing 
effect upon the human mind. Accordingly, what common 
hearer who was present when Quintus Scsevola pleaded for 
Mucins Coponius, in the cause above-mentioned, would 
have wished for, or indeed thought it possible to find any- 
tliing which was more correct, more elegant, or more com- 
plete ? When he attempted to prove, that, as Mucins Curius 
was left heir to the estate only in case of the death of his 
future ward before he came of age, he could not possibly be 
a legal heir, when the expected ward was never born ; what 
did he leave unsaid of the scrupulous regard which should be 
paid to the literal meaning of every testament ? what of the 
accuracy and preciseness of the old and established forms of 
law 1 and how carefully did he specify the manner in which 
the will would have been expressed, if it had intended that 
Curius should be the heir in case of a total default of issue ? 
in what a masterly manner did he represent the ill conse- 
quences to the public, if the letter of a will should be dis- 
regarded, its intention decided by arbitrary conjectures, and 
the written bequests of plain illiterate men left to the artful 
interpretation of a pleader ? how often did he urge the autho- 
rity of his father, who had always been an advocate for a 
strict adherence to the letter of a testament ? and with what 
emphasis did he enlarge upon the necessity of supporting the 
common forms of law 1 All which particulars he discussed 
not only with great art and ingenuity ; but in such a neat, 
such a close, and, I may add, in so florid and so elegant 
a style, that there was not a single person among the common 
part of the audience, who could expect anything more com- 
plete, or even think it possible to exist. 

LIII. ^^ But when Crassus, who spoke on the opposite side, 
began with the story of a notable youth, who, having found 
an oar-niche of a boat as he was rambling along the shore, 
took it into his head that he would build a boat to it ; and 
when he applied the tale to Scsevola, who, from the oar-niche 
of an argument [which he had deduced from certain imagi- 
nary ill consequences to the public], represented the decision 
of a private will to be a matter of such importance as to 



458 BRUTUS ; or, 

deserve the attention of the Centumviri ; T7hen Crassus, I say, 
in the beginning of his discourse, had thus taken off the edge 
of the strongest plea of his antagonist, he entertained his 
hearers with many other turns of a similar kind ; and, in a 
short time, changed the serious apprehensions of all who were 
present into open mirth and good-humour ; which is one of 
those three effects which I have just observed an orator should 
be able to produce. He then proceeded to remark that it was 
evidently the intention and the will of the testator, that in 
case, either by death, or default of issue, there should happen 
to be no son to fall to his charge, the inheritance should 
devolve to Curius ; that- most people in a similar case would 
express themselves in the same manner, and that it would 
certainly stand good in law, and always had. By these, and 
many other observations of the same kind, he gained the 
assent of his hearers ; which is another of the three duties of 
an orator. Lastly, he supported, at all events, the true mean- 
ing and spirit of a will, against the literal construction; justly 
observing, that there would be an endless cavilling about 
words, not only in wills, but in all other legal deeds, if the 
real intention of the party were to be disregarded ; and hint- 
ing very smartly, that his friend Sceevola had assumed a most 
unwarrantable degree of importance, if no person must after- 
wards presume to indite a legacy, but in the musty form 
which he himself might please to prescribe. As he enlarged 
on each of these arguments with great force and propriety, 
supported them by a number of precedents, exhibited them 
in a variety of views, and enlivened them with many occa- 
sional turns of wit and pleasantry, he gained so much applause, 
and gave such general satisfaction, that it was scarcely remem- 
bered that anything had been said on the contrary side of the 
question. This was the third, and the most important duty 
we assigned to an orator. Here, if one of the people were to 
be judge, the same person who had heard the first speaker 
with a degree of admiration, would, on hearing the second, 
despise himself for his former want of judgment ; whereas 
a man of taste and erudition, on hearing Scsevola, would have 
observed that he was really master of a rich and ornamental 
style ; but if, on comparing the manner in which each ot 
them concluded his cause, it was to be inquired which of the 
two was the best orator, the decision of the man of learning 
would not have differed from that of the vulgar. 



I 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 459 



ilY. " What advantage, then, it will be said, has the 
skilful critic over the illiterate hearer? A great and very 
important advantage ; if it is indeed a matter of any conse- 
quence, to be able to discover by what means that which is 
the true and real end of speaking, is either obtained or lost. 
He has likewise this additional superiority, that when two or 
more orators, as has frequently happened, have shared the 
applauses of the public, he can judge, on a careful observation 
of the principal merits of each, w^hat is the most perfect cha- 
racter of eloquence ; since whatever does not meet the appro- 
bation of the people, must be equally condemned by a more 
intelligent hearer. For as it is easily understood by the 
sound of a harp, whether the strings are skilfully touched ; 
so it may likewise be discovered from the manner in which 
the passions of an audience are affected, how far the speaker 
is able to command them. A man, therefore, who is a real 
connoisseur in the art, can sometimes by a single glance, as 
he passes through the forum, and without stopping to listen 
attentively to what is said, form a tolerable judgment of the 
ability of the speaker. When he observes any of the bench 
either yawning, or speaking to the person who is next to him, 
or looking carelessly about him, or sending to inquire the 
time of day, or teazing the quaesitor to dismiss the court ; he 
concludes very naturally that the cause upon trial is not 
pleaded by an orator who understands how to apply the 
powers of language to the passions of the judges, as a skilful 
musician applies his fingers to the harp. On the other hand, 
,if, as he passes by, he beholds the judges looking attentively 
I before them, as if they were either receiving some material 
' information, or visibly approved what they had already heard ; 
if he sees them listening to the voice of the pleader with 
a kind of ecstasy, like a fond bird to some melodious tune ; 
and, above all, if he discovers in their looks any strong indi- 
cations of pity, abhorrence, or any other emotion of the 
mind ; though he should not be near enough to hear a single 
word, he immediately discovers that the cause is managed 
by a real orator, who is either performing, or. has already 
played his part to good purpose." 

LV. After I had concluded these digressive remarks, my 
two friends were kind enough to signify their approbation, 
and I resumed my subject. '^ As this digTCssion," said I, " took 
its rise from Gotta and Sulpicius, whom I mentioned as the 



460 



BBUTUS ; OR, 



two most approved orators of the age they lived in, I shall 
first return to them, and afterwards notice the rest in their | 
proper order, according to the plan we began upon. I have i 
already observed that there are two classes of good orators | 
(for we have no concern with any others), of which the former , 
are distinguished by the simple neatness and brevity of their 
language, and the latter by their copious dignity and eleva- 
tion ; but although the preference must always be given to 
that which is great and striking ; yet, in speakers of real 
merit, whatever is most perfect of the kind, is justly entitled 
to our commendation. It must, however, be observed, that 
the close and simple orator should be careful not to sink into 
a dryness and poverty of expression ; while, on the other 
hand, the copious and more stately speaker should be equally 
on his guard against a swelling and empty parade of words. 
To begin with Cotta, he had a ready, quick invention, and 
spoke correctly and freely ; and as he very prudently avoided 
every forcible exertion of his voice, on account of the weak- 
ness of his lungs, so his language was equally adapted to the 
delicacy of his constitution. There was nothing in his style 
but what was neat, compact, and healthy ; and (what may 
justly be considered as his greatest excellence) though he was 
scarcely able, and therefore never attempted to force the 
passions of the judges by a strong and spirited elocution, yet 
he managed them so artfully, that the gentle emotions he 
raised in them, answered exactly the same purpose, and pro- 
duced the same effect, as the violent ones which were excited 
by Sulpicius. For Sulpicius was really the most striking, and, 
if I may be allowed the expression, the most tragical orator 
I ever heard : his voice was strong and sonorous, and yet sweet 
and flowing ; his gesture and his deportment were graceful 
and ornamental, but in such a style as to appear to have been 
formed for the forum, and not for the stage ; and his language, 
though rapid and voluble, was neither loose nor exuberant. 
He was a professed imitator of Crassus, while Cotta chose 
Antonius for his model ; but the latter wanted the force of 
Antonius, and the former the agreeable humour of Crassus." 

" How extremely difficult, then," said Brutus, " must be 
the art of speaking, when such consummate orators as these 
were each of them destitute of one of its principal beauties !" 
LYI. "We may likewise observe," said I, "in the present 
instance, that two orators may have the highest degree of 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 461 

aerit^ who are totally unlike each other ; for none could be 
aore so than Cotta and Sulpicius, and yet both of them were 
ar superior to any of their contemporaries. It is therefore 
he business of every intelligent master to notice what is the 
latural bent of his pupil's capacity ; and taking that for his 
^uide, to imitate the conduct of Isocrates with his two scho- 
ars Theopompus and Ephorus, who, after remarking the lively 
genius of the former, and the mild and timid bashfulness of 
:he latter, is reported to have said, that he applied a spur to 
:he one, and a curb to the other. The orations now extant, 
v^hich bear the name of Snlpicius, are supposed to have been 
written after his decease by my contemporary Publius Ca- 
Qutius, a man indeed of inferior rank, but who, in my mind, 
had a great command of language. But we have not a single 
speech of Sulpicius that was really his own ; for I have often 
I heard him say, that he neither had, nor ever could commit 
' anything of the kind to writing. And as to Cotta's speech 
[in defence of himself, called a vindication of the Yarian law, 
'^it wa.s composed, at his own request, by Lucius ^lius. This 
■ iElius w^as a man of merit, and a very worthy Roman knight, 
who was thoroughly versed in Greek and Koman literature. 
' He had likewise a critical knowledge of the antiquities 
; of his country, both as to the date and particulars of every 
. new improvement, and every memorable transaction, and 
' was perfectly well read in the ancient writers ; a branch of 
learning in which he was succeeded by our friend Yarro, a 
man of genius, and of the most extensive erudition, who after- 
wards enlarged the plan by many valuable collections of his 
own, and gave a much fuller and more elegant system of it to 
the public. For ^lius himself chose to assume the character 
of a Stoic, and neither aimed to be^ nor ever was an orator ; 
but he composed several orations for other people to pro- 
nounce ; as, for Quintus Metellus, Fabius Quintus Caepio, and 
Quintus Pompeius Rufus ; though the latter composed those 
speeches himself which he spoke in his own defence, but not 
wdthout the assistance of ^lius. For I myself was present 
at the writing of them, in the younger part of my life, when I 
used to attend ^lius for the benefit of his instructions. But 
I am surprised that Cotta, who w^as really an excellent orator, 
and a man of good learning, should be willing that the trifling 
speeches of JElius should be published to the world as his, 
LYII. ^^ To the two above-mentioned, no third person of 



462 BRUTUS j OR, 

the same age was esteemed an equal ; Pomponius, however, 
was a speaker much to my taste ; or, at least, I have very 
little fault to find with him. But there was no employment 
for any in capital causes, excepting for those I have already 
mentioned; because Antonius, who was always courted on 
these occasions, was very ready to give his service ; and 
Crassus, though not so compliable, generally consented, on 
any pressing solicitation, to give Ms. Those who had not 
interest enough to engage either of these, commonly applied 
to Philippus or Caesar ; but when Cotta and Sulpicius were at 
liberty, they generally had the preference ; so that all the 
causes in which any honour was to be acquired, were pleaded 
by these six orators. We may add, that trials were not so 
frequent then as they are at present ; neither did people 
employ, as they do now, several pleaders on the same side of 
the question ; a practice which is attended with many dis- 
advantages. For hereby we are often obliged to speak in 
reply to those whom we had not an opportunity of hearing ; 
in which case, what has been alleged on the opposite side, is 
often represented to us either falsely or imperfectly; and 
besides, it is a very material circumstance, that I myself 
should be present to see with what countenance my antago- 
nist supports his allegations, and, still more so, to observe 
the effect of every part of his discourse upon the audience. 
And as every defence should be conducted upon one uniform 
plan, nothing can be more improperly contrived, than to 
recommence it by assigning the peroration, or pathetical part 
of it, to a second advocate. For every cause can have but 
one natural introduction and conclusion ; and all the other 
parts of it, like the members of an animal body, will best 
retain their proper strength and beauty, when they are regu- 
larly disposed and connected. We may add, that, as it' is 
very difficult in a single oration of any length, to avoid saying 
something which does not comport with the rest of it so well 
as it ought to do, how much more difficult must it be to con- 
trive that nothing shall be said, which does not tally exactly 
with the speech of another person who has spoken before you'^? 
But as it certainly requires more labour to plead a whole 
cause, than only a part of it, and as many advantageous con- 
nexions are formed by assisting in a suit in which several 
persons are interested, the custom, however preposterous in 
itself, has been readily adopted. 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 463 

LYIII. *• There were some, however, who esteemed Curio 
the thh'd best orator of the age ; perhaps, because his lan- 
guage was brilhant and pompous, and because he had a habit 
(for which I suppose he was indebted to his domestic educa- 
tion) of expressing himself with tolerable correctness ; for he 
was a man of very little learning. But it is a circumstance 
of great importance, what sort of people we are used to con- 
verse with at home, especially in the more early part of life; 
and what sort of language we have been accustomed to hear 
from our tutors and parents, not excepting the mother. We 
have all read the letters of Cornelia, the mother of the 
Gracchi ; and are satisfied, that her sons were not so much 
nurtured in their mother's lap, as in the elegance and 
purity of her language. I have often too enjoyed the agree- 
able conversation of Laelia, the daughter of Caius, and ob- 
served in her a strong tincture of her father's elegance. I 
have likewise conversed with his two daughters, the Mucias, 
and his grand-daughters, the two Liciniee, with one of whom 
(the wife of Scipio) you, my Brutus, I believe, have some- 
times been in company." ^' I have," replied he, '- and was 
much pleased with her conversation ; and the more so, 
because she was the daughter of Crassus." '^ And what think 
you," said I, " of Crassus the son of that Licinia, who was 
adopted by Crassus in his will V '•' He is said," replied he, 
'• to have been a man of great genius ; and the Scipio you 
have mentioned, who was my colleague, likewise appears to 
me to have been a good speaker, and an elegant companion." 
" Your opinion, my Brutus," said I, " is very just. For this 
family, if I may be allowed the expression, seems to have 
been the offspring of wisdom. As to their two grandfathers, 
Scipio and Crassus, we have taken notice of them already j as 
we also have of their great grandfathers, Quintus Metellus, who 
had four sons ; Publius Scipio, who, when a private citizen, 
rescued the republic from the arbitrary influence of Tiberius 
Gracchus ; and Quintus Scsevola, the augur, who was the 
ablest and most affable civilian of his time. And lastly, how 
illustrious are the names of their next immediate progenitors, 
Publius Scipio, who was twice consul, and was called the 
darling of the people; and Caius Lselius, who was esteemed 
the wisest of men." '-A generous stock indeed!" cried 
Brutus, " into which the wisdom of many has been succes- 
sively ingrafted, like a number of scions on the same tree!" 



464 BRUTUS; or, 

LIX. " I have likewise a suspicion," replied I, " (if we 
may compare small things with great,) that Curio's family, 
though he himself was left an orphan, was indebted to his 
fathers instruction, and good example, for the habitual, 
purity of their language ; and so much the more, because, 
of all those who were held in any estimation for their elo- 
quence, I never knew one who was so totally uninformed and 
unskilled in every branch of liberal science. He had not 
read a single poet, or studied a single orator ; and he knew 
little or nothing either of public, civil, or common law. We 
might say almost the same, indeed, of several others, and 
some of them very able orators, who (we know) were but 
little acquainted with these useful parts of knowledge ; as, 
for instance, of Sulpicius and Antonius. But this deficiency 
was supplied in them by an elaborate knowledge of the 
art of speaking ; and there was not one of them who w^as 
totally unqualified in any of the five^ principal parts of 
which it is composed ; for whenever this is the case, (and it 
matters not in which of those parts it happens,) it entirely 
incapacitates a man to shine as an orator. Some, however, 
excelled in one part, and some in another. Thus Antonius 
could readily invent such arguments as were most in point, 
and afterwards digest and methodize them to the best advan- 
tage; and he could likewise retain the plan he had formed 
with great exactness ; but his chief merit was the goodness 
of his delivery, in which he was justly allowed to excel. In 
some of these qualifications he was upon an equal footing with 
Crassus, and in others he was superior; but then the lan- 
guage of Crassus was indisputably preferable to his. In the 
same manner, it cannot be said that either Sulpicius or Cotta, 
or any other speaker of repute, was absolutely deficient in 
any one of the five parts of oratory. But we may justly infer 
from the example of Curio, that nothing will more recommend 
an orator, than a brilliant and ready flow of expression ; for 
he was remarkably dull in the invention, and very loose and 
unconnected in the disposition, of his arguments. 

LX. "The two remaining parts are, pronunciation and 
memory ; in each of which he was so miserably defective, as 
to excite the laughter and the ridicule of his hearers. His 
gesture was really such as Caius Julius represented it, in 
a severe sarcasm, that will never be forgotten ; for as he was 

^ Invention, disposition, elocution, memory, and pronunciation. 



EEMARKS ON EMINENT OEaTORS. 465 

swaying and reeling his whole body from side to side, Julius 
facetiously inquired who it was that was speaking from a 
boat? To the same purpose was the jest of Cnaeus Sicinius, a 
man very vulgar, but exceedingly humorous, which was the 
only qualification he had to recommend him as an orator. 
When this man, as tribune of the people, had summoned 
Curio and Octavius, who were then consuls, into the forum, 
and Curio had delivered a tedious harangue, while Octavius 
sat silently by him, wrapt up in flannels, and besmeared with 
ointments, to ease the pain of the gout ; Octavius, said he, 
you are infinitely obliged to your colleague; for if he had 
not tossed and flung himself about to-day, in the manner he 
did, you would certainly have been devoured by the flies. As 
to his memory, it was so extremely treacherous, that after 
he had divided his subject into three general heads, he would 
sometimes, in the course of speaking, either add a fourth, or 
omit the third. In a capital trial, in which I had pleaded for 
Titinia, the daughter of Cotta, when he attempted to reply to 
me in defence of Servius Nsevius, he suddenly forgot every- 
thing he intended to say, and attributed it to the pretended 
witchcraft and magic artifices of Titinia. These were un- 
doubted proofs of the weakness of his memory. But, what is 
still more inexcusable, he sometimes forgot, even in his 
written treatises, what he had mentioned but a little before. 
Thus, in a book of his, in which he introduces himself as en- 
tering into conversation with our friend Pansa, and his son 
Curio, when he was walking home from the senate-house ; 
the senate is supposed to have been summoned by Caesar in 
his first consulship; and the whole conversation arises from 
the son's inquiry, what the house had resolved upon. Curio 
launches out into a long invective against the conduct of 
Caesar, and as is generally the custom in dialogues, the parties 
are engaged in a close dispute on the subject; but very un- 
happily, though the conversation commences at the breaking 
up of the senate which Caesar held when he was first consul, 
the author censures those very actions of the same Caesar, 
which did not happen till the next, and several other suc- 
ceeding years of his government in Gaul." 

LXI. " Is it possible then," said Brutus, with an air of 
surprise, " that any man (and especially in a written per- 
formance) could be so forgetful as not to discover, upon a 
subsequent perusal of his own work, what an egregious 

H H 



466 BRUTUS ; or, 

blunder he had committed?" " Yery true," said I ; ^^ for if 
he wrote with a design to discredit the measures which he 
represents in such an odious light, nothing could be more 
stupid than not to commence his dialogue at a period which 
was subsequent to those measures. But he so entirely forgets 
himself, as to tell us, that he did not choose to attend a 
senate which was held in one of Csesar's future consulships, 
in the very same dialogue in which he introduces himself as 
returning home from a senate which was held in his first 
consulship. It cannot, therefore, be wondered at, that he 
who was so remarkably defective in a faculty which is the 
handmaid of our other intellectual powers, as to forget, even 
in a written treatise, a material circumstance which he had 
mentioned but a little before, should find his memory fail him, 
as it generally did, in a sudden and unpremeditated harangue. 
It accordingly happened, though he had many connexions, 
and was fond of speaking in public, that few causes were 
intrusted to his management. But, among his contem- 
poraries, he was esteemed next in merit to the first orators of 
the age; and that merely, as I said before, for his good 
choice of words, and his uncommon readiness, and great 
fluency of expression. His orations, therefore, may deserve a 
cursory perusal. It is true, indeed, they are much too lan- 
guid and spiritless ; but they may yet be of service to enlarge 
and improve an accomplishment, of which he certainly had 
a moderate share ; and which has so much force and efficacy, 
that it gave Curio the appearance and reputation of an orator 
without the assistance of any other good quality. 

LXII. " But to return to our subject ; Caius Carbo, of 
the same age, was likewise reckoned an orator of the second 
class ; he was the son, indeed, of the truly eloquent man 
before mentioned, but was far from being an acute speaker 
himself; he was, however, esteemed an orator. His lan- 
guage was tolerably nervous, he spoke with ease; and there 
was an air of authority in his address that was perfectly 
natural. But Quintus Yarius was a man of quicker inven- 
tion, and, at the same time, had an equal freedom of expres- 
sion ; besides which, he had a bold and spirited delivery, and a 
vein of elocution which was neither poor, nor coarse and 
vulgar; in short, you need not hesitate to pronounce him an 
orator. Cnseus Pomponius was a vehement, a rousing, and 
a fierce and eager speaker, and more inclined to act the part of 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 467 

a prosecutor, than of an advocate. But far inferior to these was 
Lucius Fufius ; though his apphcation was, in some measure, 
rewarded by the success of his prosecution against Manius 
Aquilius. For as to Marcus Drusus, your great uncle, who 
spoke like an orator only upon matters of gOYernment ; Lucius 
Lucullus, who was indeed an artful speaker, and your father, 
my Brutus, who was well acquainted with the common and civil 
lawj Marcus Lucullus, and Marcus Octavius, the son of Cnseus, 
who was a man of so much authority and address, as to pro- 
cure the repeal of Sempronius's corn-act, by the suffrages of 
a full assembly of the people ; Cnseus Octavius, the son of 
Marcus j and Marcus Cato, the father, and Quintus Catulus, 
the son ; we must excuse these (if I may so express myself) 
from the fatigues and dangers of the field, — that is, from the 
management of judicial causes, and place them in garrison 
over the general interests of the republic, a duty to which 
they seem to have been sufficiently adequate. I should have 
assigned the same post to Quintus Csepio, if he had not been 
so violently attached to the equestrian order, as to set him- 
self at variance with the senate. I have also remarked, that 
Cnseus Carbo, Marcus Marius, and several others of the same 
stamp, who would not have merited the attention of an 
audience that had any taste for elegance, were extremely well 
suited to address a tumultuous crowd. In the same class 
(if I may be allowed to interrupt the series of my narrative) 
Lucius Quintius lately made his appearance; though Pali- 
canus, it must be owned, was still better adapted to please 
the ears of the populace. But, as I have mentioned this in- 
ferior kind of speakers, I must be so just to Lucius Apuleius 
Saturninus, as to observe that, of all the factious declaimers 
since the time of the Gracchi, he was generally esteemed the 
ablest; and yet he caught the attention of the public more 
by his appearance, his gesture, and his dress, than by any 
real fluency of expression, or ^ven a tolerable share of good 
sense. But Caius Servilius Glaucia, though the most aban- 
doned wretch that ever existed, w^as very keen and artful, 
and excessively humorous; and notwithstanding the mean- 
ness of his birth, and the depravity of his life, he would have 
been advanced to the dignity of a consul in his prsetorship, if 
it had been judged lawful to admit his suit; for the populace 
were entirely at his devotion, and he had secured the interest 
of the knights by an act he had procured in their favour. 

H H 2 



^QS BRUTUS ; OR, 

He was slain in the open forum, while he was praetor, on the 
same day as the tribune Saturninus, in the consulship of 
Marius and Flaccus : and bore a near resemblance to Hyper- 
bolus, the Athenian, whose profligacy was so severely stigma- 
tized in the old Attic comedies. These were succeeded by 
Sextus Titius, who was indeed a voluble speaker, and pos- 
sessed a ready comprehension ; but he was so loose and effe- 
minate in his gesture, as to furnish room for the invention of 
a dance, which was called the Titian jig; so careful should 
we be to avoid every peculiarity in our manner of speaking, 
which may afterwards be exposed to ridicule by a ludicrous 
imitation. 

LXIII. ^^ But we have rambled back insensibly to a period 
which has been already examined: let us, therefore, return 
to that which we were reviewing a little before. Contemporary 
with Sulpicius was Publius Antistius, a plausible declaimer, 
who, after being silent for several years, and exposed (as he 
often was) not only to the contempt, but the derision of his 
hearers, first spoke with applause in his tribuneship, in a real 
and very interesting protest against the illegal application of 
Caius Julius for the consulship ; and that so much the more, 
because, though Sulpicius himself, who then happened to be 
his colleague, spoke on the same side of the debate, Antistius 
argued more copiously, and to better purpose. This raised 
his reputation so high, that many, and (soon afterwards) 
every cause of importance, was eagerly recommended to his 
patronage. To speak the truth, he had a quick conception, 
a methodical judgment, and a retentive memory ; and though 
his language was not much embellished, it was very far from - 
being low. In short, his style was easy and flowing, and his 
appearance rather gentlemanly than otherwise ; but his action 
Avas a little defective, partly through the disagreeable tone oi 
his voice, and partly by a few ridiculous gestures, of which 
he could not entirely break himself He flourished in the 
time between the flight and the return of Sylla, when the 
republic was deprived of a regular administration of justice, 
and of its former dignity and splendour. But the reception 
which he met with was the more favourable, as the forum 
was in a measure destitute of good orators. For Sulpicius 
was dead; Cotta and Curio were abroad; and no pleaders 
of eminence were left but Carbo and Pomponius, from each 
of whom he easily carried off" the palm. 



REMARKS OX EMINENT ORATORS. 469 

LXIV. " His nearest successor in the following age was 
Lucius Siseniui, who was a man of learning, had a taste foi 
the liberal sciences, spoke the Roman language with accuracy; 
was well acquainted with the laws and constitution of his 
eoiiutry, and had a tolerable share of w^it; but he was not a 
speaker of any great apphcation, or extensive practice ; and 
as he happened to live in the intermediate time between the 
appearance of Siilpicius and Hortensius, he was unable to equal 
the former, and forced to yield to the superior talents of the 
latter. We may easily form a judgment of his abilities from 
the historical works he has left behind him ; which, though 
evidently preferable to anything of the kind which had 
appeared before, may serve as a proof that he was far below 
the standard of perfection, and that this species of composi- 
tion had not then been improved to any^ great degree of 
excellence among the Romans. But the genius of Quintus 
Hortensius, even in his early youth, like one of Phidias's sta- 
tues, was no sooner beheld than it was universally admired ! 
He spoke his first oration in the forum in the consulship of Lu- 
cius Crassus and Quintus Scaevola, to w^hom it was personally 
addressed; and though he was then only nineteen years old, 
he descended from the rostra with the hearty approbation 
not only of the audience in general, but of the two consuls 
themselves, who were the most intelligent judges in the 
whole city. He died in the consulship of Lucius Paulus and 
Gains Marcellus; from which it appears that he was four- 
and-forty years a pleader. We shall review his character 
more at large in the sequel ; but in this part of my history, 
I chose to include him in the number of orators who were 
rather of an earlier date. This indeed must necessarily 
happen to all whose lives are of any considerable length ; for 
they are equally liable to a comparison with their elders and 
their juniors; as in the case of the poet Attius, who says 
that both he and Pacuvius applied themselves to the cultiva- 
tion of the drama under the same sediles; though, at the 
time, the one was eighty, and the other only thirty years old. 
Thus Hortensius may be compared not only with those who 
were properly his contemporaries, but with me, and you, my 
Brutus, and with others of a prior date. For he began to speak 
in public while Crassus was living ; but his fame increased 
when he appeared as a joint advocate with Antonius and 
Philippus (at that time in the decline of life) in defence of 



470 BRUTUS ; OR, 

Cnaeus Pompeius, — a cause in which (though a mere youth) 
he distinguished himself above the rest. He may therefore be 
included in the list of those whom I have placed in the time 
of Sulpicius ; but among his proper coevals, such as Marcus 
Piso, Marcus Crassus, Cnaeus Lentulus^ and Publius Lentulus 
Sura, he excelled beyond the reach of competition ; and after 
these he happened upon me, in the early part of my life (for 
I was eight years younger than himself), and spent a number 
of years with me in pursuit of the same forensic glory ; and 
at last, (a little before his death,) he once pleaded with you, 
in defence of Appius Claudius, as I have frequently done for 
others. 

LXy. " Thus you see, my Brutus, I am come insensibly to 
yourself, though there was undoubtedly a great variety of 
orators between my first appearance in the forum, and yours. 
But as I determined, when we began the conversation, to 
make no mention of those among them who are still living, 
to prevent your inquiring too minutely what is my opinion 
concerning each; I shall confine myself to such as are now no 
more." *' That is not the true reason," said Brutus, " why 
you choose to be silent about the living." " What then do 
you suppose it to be V said I. " You are only fearful," 
replied he, " that your remarks should afterwards be men- 
tioned by us in other company, and that, by this means, you 
should expose yourself to the resentment of those whom you 
may not think it worth your while to notice." ^^ Indeed," 
answered I, '' I have not the least doubt of your secrecy." 
" Neither have you any reason," said he ; ^' but after all, I 
suppose, you had rather be silent yourself, than rely upon 
our taciturnity." " To confess the truth," replied I, " when I 
first entered upon the subject, I never imagined that I should 
have extended it to the age now before us ; whereas I have 
been drawn by a continued series of history among the 
moderns of latest date." '' Introduce, then," said he, " those 
intermediate orators you may think worthy of our notice ; 
and afterwards let us return to yourself, and Hortensius." 
^' To Hortensius," replied I, " with all my heart ; but as to 
my own character, I shall leave it to other people to examine, 
if they choose to take the trouble." '^ I can by no means 
agree to that^'' said he ; " for though every part of the 
account you have favoured us with, has entertained me very 
agreeably, it now begins to seem tedious, because I am 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 471 

impatient to hear something of yourself ; I do not mean the 
wonderful qualities, but the 2:>Togressive steps, and the advances 
of your eloquence ; for the former are sufficiently known 
already both to me, and the whole world." '' As you do not 
require me," said I, "to sound the praises of my own genius, 
but only to describe my labour and application to improve it, 
your request shall be complied with. But to preserve the 
order of my narrative, I shall first introduce such other 
speakers as I think ought to be previously noticed. 

" And I shall begin with Marcus Crassus, who was con- 
temporary with Hortensius. LXVI. With a tolerable share 
of learning, and a very moderate capacity, his application, 
assiduity, and interest, procured him a place among the 
ablest pleaders of the time for several years. His language 
was pure, his expression neither low nor vulgar, and his ideas 
well digested; but he had nothing in him that was florid 
and ornamental ; and the real ardour of his mind was not 
supported by any vigorous exertion oi his voice, so that he 
pronounced almost everything in the same uniform tone. 
His equal, and professed antagonist, Cains Fimbria, was not 
able to maintain his character so long ; and though he always 
spoke with a strong and elevated voice, and poured forth 
a rapid torrent of well-chosen expressions, he was so im- 
moderately vehement that you might justly be surprised that 
the people should have been so absent and inattentive as 
to adm.it a madman, like him, into the list of orators. As to 
Cneeus Lentulus, his action acquired him a reputation for his 
eloquence very far beyond his real abilities; for though he 
was not a man of any great penetration (notwithstanding he 
carried the appearance of it in his countenance), nor possessed 
any real fluency of expression (though he was equally specious 
in this respect as in the former), yet by his sudden breaks, 
and exclamations, he affected such an ironical air of surprise, 
with a sweet and sonorous tone of voice, and his whole 
action was so warm and lively, that his defects were scarcely 
noticed. For as Curio acquired the reputation of an orator 
with no other quality than a tolerable freedom of elocution, 
go Cnseus Lentulus concealed the mediocrity of his other 
accomplishments by his action, which was really excellent. 
Much the same might be said of Publius Lentulus, whose 
poverty of invention and expression was secured from notice 
by the mere dignity of his presence, his correct and graceful 



472 BRUTUS; or, 

gesture, and the strength and sweetness of his voice; and his 
merit depended so entirely upon his action, that he was more 
deficient in every other quality than his namesake. 

LXVII. " But Marcus Piso derived all his talents from 
his erudition ; for he was much better versed in Grecian 
literature than any of his predecessors. He had, however, a 
natural keenness of discernment, which he greatly improved 
by art, and exerted with great address and dexterity, though 
in very indifferent language; but he was frequently warm 
and choleric, sometimes cold and insipid, and now and then 
rather smart and humorous. He did not long support the 
fatigue and emulous contention of the forum ; partly on 
account of the weakness of his constitution; and partly, 
because he could not submit to the follies and impertinences 
of the common people (which we orators are forced to 
swallow), either, as it was generally supposed, from a peculiar 
moroseness of temper, or from a liberal and ingenuous pride 
of heart. After acquiring, therefore, in his youth, a tolerable 
degree of reputation, his character began to sink ; but in the 
trial of the Vestals, he again recovered it with some additional 
lustre, and being thus recalled to the theatre of eloquence, he 
kept his rank, as long as he was able to support the fatigue 
of it ; after which his credit declined, in proportion as he 
remitted his application. Publius Murena had a moderate 
genius, but was passionately fond of the study of antiquity ; 
he applied himself with equal diligence to the belles lettres, 
in which he was tolerably versed ; in short, he was a man of 
great industry, and took the utmost pains to distinguish 
himself. Cains Censorinus had a good stock of Grecian 
literature, explained whatever he advanced with great neat- 
ness and perspicuity, and had a graceful action, but was too 
cold and inanimate for the forum. Lucius Turius, with 
a very indifferent genius, but the most indefatigable applica- 
tion, spoke in public very often, in the best manner he was 
able ; and, accordingly, he only wanted the votes of a few 
centuries to promote him to the consulship. Cains Macer 
was never a man of much interest or authority, but was one 
of the most active pleaders of his time ; and if his life, his 
manners, and his very looks, had not ruined the credit of his 
genius, he would have ranked higher in the list of orators. 
He was neither copious, nor dry and barren ; neither neat 
and embellished, nor wholly inelegant; and his voice, his 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 473 

gesture, and every part of his action, was without any grace ; 
but in inventing and digesting his ideas, he had a won- 
derful accuracy, such as no man I ever saw either possessed 
or exerted in a more eminent degree ; and yet, somehow, he 
displayed it rather with the air of a quibbler, than of an 
orator. Though he had acquired some reputation in public 
causes, he appeared to most advantage and was most courted 
and employed in private ones. 

LXYIII. " Caius Piso, who comes next in order, had 
scarcely any exertion, but he was a speaker who adopted 
a very familiar style ; and though, in fact, he was far from 
being slow of invention, he had more penetration in his look 
and appearance than he really possessed. His contemporary, 
Marcus Glabrio, though carefully instructed by his grandfather 
Scsevola, was prevented from distinguishing himself by his 
natural indolence and want of attention. Lucius Torquatus, 
on the contrary, had an elegant turn of expression, and a clear 
comprehension, and was perfectly polite and well-bred in his 
whole manner. But Cnseus Pompeius, my coeval, a man who 
was born to excel in everything, would have acquired a more 
distinguished reputation for his eloquence, if he had not 
been diverted from the pursuit of it by the more dazzling 
charms of military fame. His language was naturally bold 
and elevated, and he was always master of his subject ; and 
as to his powers of enunciation, his voice was sonorous and 
manly, and his gesture noble and full of dignity. Decimus 
Silanus, another of my contemporaries, and your father-in- 
law, was not a man of much application, but he had a very 
competent share of discernment and elocution. Quintus 
Pompeius, the son of Aulus, who had the title of Bithynicus, 
and was about two years older than myself, was, to my own 
knowledge, remarkably fond of the study of eloquence, had an 
uncommon stock of learning, and was a man of indefatigable 
industry and perseverance ; for he was connected with Marcus 
Piso and me, not only as an intimate acquaintance, but 
as an associate in our studies and private exercises. His 
elocution was but ill recommended by his action ; for though 
the former was sufficiently copious and diffusive, there was 
nothing graceful in the latter. His contemporary, Publius 
Autronius, had a very clear and strong voice ; but he was 
distinguished by no other accomplishment. Lucius Octavius 
Reatinus died in his youth, while he was in full practice ; but 



4:74 BRUTUS j OR, 

he ascended the rostra with more assurance than abihty. 
Caius Staienus, who changed his name into ^hns by a kind 
of self-adoption, was a warm, an abusive, and indeed a furious 
speaker; which was so agreeable to the taste of many, that 
he would have risen to some rank in the state, if it had not 
been for a crime of which he was clearly convicted, and for 
which he afterwards suffered. 

LXIX. " At the same time were the two brothers Caius 
and Lucius Ceepasius, who, though men of an obscure family 
and little previous consequence, were yet, by mere dint of 
application, suddenly promoted to the qusestorship, with no 
other recommendation than a provincial and unpolished kind 
of oratory. That I may not seem wilfully to omit any de- 
claimer, I must also notice Caius Cosconius Calidianus, who, 
without any discernment, amused the people with a rapidity 
of language (if such it might be called) which he attended 
with a perpetual hurry of action, and a most violent exertion 
of his voice. Of much the same cast was Quintus Arrius, 
who may be considered as a second-hand Marcus Crassus. 
He is a striking proof of what consequence it is in such a 
city as ours to devote oneself to the interests of the many, 
and to be as active as possible in promoting their safety, or 
their honour. For by these means, though of the lowest 
parentage, having raised himself to offices of rank, and to 
considerable wealth and influence, he likewise acquired the 
reputation of a tolerable patron, without either learning or 
abilities. But as inexperienced champions, who, from a pas- 
sionate desire to distinguish themselves in the circus, can bear 
the blows of their opponents without shrinking, are often 
overpowered by the heat of the sun, when it is increased by 
the reflection of the sand ; m he, who had hitherto supported 
even the sharpest encounters with good success, could not 
stand the severity of that year of judicial contest, which 
blazed upon him like a summer's sun." 

" Upon my word," cried Atticus, " you are now treating us 
with the very dregs of oratory, and you have entertained us 
in this manner for some time ; but I did not offer to inter- 
rupt you, because I never dreamed you would have descended 
so low as to mention the Staieni and Autronii f " As I have 
been speaking of the dead, you will not imagine, I suppose," 
said I, " that I have done it to court their favour ; but in 
pursuing the order of history, I was necessarily led by degrees 



EEMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 475 

to a period of time which falls within the compass of our owd 
knowledge. But I wish it to be noticed, that after recount- 
ing all who ever ventured to speak in public, we find but 
few (very few indeed !) whose names are worth recording ; 
and not many who had even the repute of being orators. Let 
us, however, return to our subject. 

LXX. '' Titus Torquatus, then, the son of Titus, was a 
man of learning, (which he first acquired in the school of 
Molo in Rhodes,) and of a free and easy elocution which he 
received from nature. If he had lived to a proper age, he 
would have been chosen consul, without any solicitation ; 
but he had more ability for speaking, than inclination ; so 
that, in fact, he did not do justice to the art he professed ; 
and yet he was never wanting to his duty, either in the pri- 
vate causes of his friends and dependents, or in his senatorial 
capacity. My townsman, too, Marcus Pontidius, pleaded a 
number of private causes. He had a rapidity of expression, 
and a tolerable quickness of comprehension ; but he was very 
warm, and indeed rather too choleric and irascible ; so that 
he often wrangled, not only with his antagonist, but (what 
appears very strange) with the judge himself, whom it was 
rather his business to sooth and gratify. Marcus Messala, 
who was something younger than myself, was far from being 
a poor and abject pleader, and yet he was not a very ele- 
gant one. He was judicious, penetrating, and wary, very 
exact in digesting and methodizing his subject, and a man of 
uncommon diligence and application, and of very extensive 
practice. As to the two Metelli, (Celer and Nepos,) these also 
had a moderate share of employment at the bar ; but being 
destitute neither of learning nor abilities, they chiefly applied 
themselves (and with some success) to debates of a more 
popular kind. But Cnaeus Lentulus Marcellinus, who was 
never reckoned a bad speaker, was esteemed a very eloquent 
one in his consulship. He wanted neither sentiment nor 
expression ; his voice was sweet and sonorous ; and he had a 
sufficient stock of humour. Caius Memmius, the son of Lucius, 
was a perfect adept in the learning of the Greeks ; for he had 
an insuperable disgust to the literature of the Eomans. He 
was a neat and polished speaker, and had a sweet and harmo- 
nious turn of expression ; but as he was equally averse to 
every laborious effort either of the mind or the tongue, his 
eloquence declined in proportion as he lessened his application." 



476 BRUTUS ; or, 

LXXI. " But I heartily wish," said Brutus, " that you 
would give us your opiniou of those orators who are still 
living ; or, if you are deterrained to say nothing of the rest, 
there are two at least, (that is, Caesar and Marcellus, whom 
I have often heard you speak of with the highest approba- 
tion,) whose characters would give me as much entertainment 
as any of those you have already specified." '' But why," 
answered I, " should you expect that I should give you my 
opinion of men who are as well known to yourself as to me f 
" Marcellus, indeed," replied he, " I am very well acquainted 
with ; but as to Caesar, I know little of him. For I have 
heard the former very often ; but by the time I was able to 
judge for myself, the latter had set out for his province." 
" But what," said I, " think you of him whom you have heard 
so often? " "What else can I think," replied he, "but that you 
will soon have an orator, who will very nearly resemble your- 
self? " "If that is the case," answered I, " pray think of him as 
favourably as you can." ^' I do," said he ; " for he pleases 
me very highly ; and not without reason. He is absolutely 
master of his profession, and, neglecting every other, has 
applied himself solely to this ; and, for that purpose, has 
persevered in the rigorous task of composing a daily essay in 
writing. His words are well chosen ; his language is full 
and copious ; and everything he says receives an additional 
ornament from the graceful tone of his voice, and the dignity 
of his action. Tn short, he is so complete an orator, that 
there is no quality I know of, in which I can think him defi- 
cient. But he is still more to be admired, for being able, in 
these unhappy times, (which are marked with a distress that, 
by some cruel fatality, has overwhelmed us all,) to console 
himself, as opportunity offers, with the consciousness of his 
own integrity, and by the frequent renewal of his literary 
pursuits. I saw him lately at Mitylene ; and then (as I have 
already hinted) I saw him a thorough man. For though I 
had before discovered in him a strong resemblance of your- 
self, the likeness was much improved after he was enriched 
by the instructions of your learned and very intimate friend 
Cratippus." " Though I acknowledge," said I, " that T have 
listened with pleasure to your eulogies on a very worthy 
man, for whom I have the warmest esteem, they have led 
me insensibly to the recollection of our common miseries, 
which our present conversation was intended to suspend. 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 477 

But I would willingly hear what is Atticus's opinion of 
Caesar." 

LXXII. " Upon my word," replied Atticus, '• you are 
wonderfully consistent with your plan, to say nothing your- 
self of the living ; and indeed, if you were to deal with them, 
as you already have with the dead, and say something of 
every paltry fellow that occurs to your memory, you would 
plague us with Aidron.ii and Staieni without end. But though 
you might possibly have it in view not to encumber yourself 
with such a numerous crowd of insignificant wretches; or 
perhaps, to avoid giving any one room to complain that he 
was either unnoticed, or not extolled according to his ima- 
ginary merit ; yet, certainly, you might have said something 
of Caesar ; especially, as your opinion of his abilities is well 
known to everybody, and his concerning yours is very far 
from being a secret. But, however," said he, (addressing 
himself to Brutus.) '^ T really think of Caesar, and everybody 
else says the same of this accurate master in the art of speak- 
ing, that he has the purest and the most elegant command of 
the Eoman language of all the orators that have yet appeared ; 
and that not merely by domestic habit, as we have lately heard 
it observed of the families of the Laelii and the Mucii, (though 
even here, I believe, this might partly have been the case.) but 
he chiefly acquired and brought it to its present perfection, by a 
studious application to the most intricate and refined branches 
of literature, and by a careful and constant attention to the 
purity of his style. But that he, who, involved as he was in 
a perpetual hurry of business, could dedicate to you, my 
Cicero, a laboured treatise on the art of speaking correctly ; 
that he, who, in the first book of it, laid it down as an axiom, 
that an accurate choice of words is the foundation of elo- 
quence ; and who has bestowed," said he, (addressing himself 
again to Brutus,) " the highest encomiums on this friend of 
ours, who yet chooses to leave Caesar's character to me; — that 
he should be a perfect master of the language of polite con- 
versation, is a circumstance which is almost too obvious to be 
mentioned. I said, the highest encomiums,'' pursued Atticus, 
^* because he says in so many words, when he addresses himself 
to Cicero, ' If others have bestowed all their time and atten- 
tion to acquire a habit of expressing themselves with ease and 
correctness, how much is the name and digTiity of the Roman 
people indebted to you, who are the highest pattern, and 



4:78 BRUTUS ; or, 

indeed the first inventor of that rich fertility of language 
which distinguishes your performances.'" 

LXXIII. " Indeed/' said Bratus, " I think he has extolled 
your merit in a very friendly and a very magnificent style ; 
for you are not only the highest pattern^ and even the first 
inventor of all our fertility of language, which alone is praise 
enough to content any reasonable man, but you have added 
fresh honours to the name and dignity of the Roman people ; 
for the very excellence in which we had hitherto been con- 
quered by the vanquished Greeks, has now been either wrested 
from their hands, or equally shared, at least, between us and 
them. So that I prefer this honourable testimony of Caesar, I 
wnll not say to the public thanksgiving which was decreed 
for your own military services, but to the triumphs of many 
heroes." " Very true," replied I, ^^ provided this honourable 
testimony was really the voice of Caesar's judgment, and 
not of his friendship ; for he certainly has added more to the 
dignity of the Roman people, whoever he may be, (if indeed 
any such man has yet existed,) who has not only exemplified 
and enlarged, but first produced this rich fertility of expres- 
sion, than the doughty warriors who have stormed a few paltry 
castles of the Ligurians, which have furnished us, you know, 
wdth many repeated triumphs. In reality, if we can submit 
to hear the truth, it may be asserted (to say nothing of those 
godlike plans, which, supported by the wisdom of our generals, 
have frequently saved the sinking state both abroad and at 
home) that an orator is justly entitled to the preference 
to any commander in a petty war. But the general, you 
will say, is the more serviceable man to the public. Nobody 
denies it : and yet (for I am not afraid of provoking your 
censure, in a conversation which leaves each of us at liberty 
to say what he thinks) I had rather be the author of the 
single oration of Crassus, in defence of Curius, than be 
honoured with two Ligurian triumphs. You wdll, perhaps, 
reply, that the storming a castle of the Ligurians was a thing 
of more consequence to the state, than that the claim of 
Curius should be ably supported. This I own to be true. 
But it was also of more consequence to the Athenians, that 
their houses should be securely roofed, than to have their 
city graced with a most beautiful statue of Minerva : and yet, 
notwithstanding this, I would much rather have been a 
Phidias, than the most skilful joiner in Athens. In the 



KEMAKKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 479 

present case, therefore, we are not to consider a man's useful- 
ness, but the strength of his abihties; especially as the 
number of painters and statuaries who have excelled in their 
profession, is very small; whereas there can never be any 
want of joiners and mechanical labourers. LXXIY. But 
proceed, my Atticus, with Caesar ; and oblige us with the 
remainder of his character." " We see then," said he, " from 
what has just been mentioned, that a pure and correct style 
is the groundwork, and the very basis and foundation, upon 
which an orator must build his other accomplishments ; 
though it is true, that those who had hitherto possessed it, 
derived it more from early habit, than from any principles of 
art. It is needless to refer you to the instances of Lselius 
and Scipio ; for a purity of language, as well as of manners, 
was the characteristic of the age they lived in. It could not, 
indeed, be applied to every one ; for their two contemporaries, 
Csecilius and Pacuvius, spoke very incorrectly j but yet people 
in general who had not resided out of the city nor been cor- 
rupted by any domestic barbarisms, spoke the' Roman lan- 
guage with purity. Time, how^ever, as well at Eome as in 
Greece, soon altered matters for the worse ; for this city (as 
had formerly been the case at Athens) was resorted to by a 
crowd of adventurers from different parts, w^ho spoke very 
corruptly; which shows the necessity of reforming our lan- 
guage, and reducing it "to a certain standard, which shall not 
be liable to vary like the capricious laws of custom. Though 
we were then very young, we can easily remember Titus 
Flamininus, who was joint-consul with Quintus Metellus ; he 
was supposed to speak his native language with correctness, 
but was a man of no literature. As to Catulus, he was far 
indeed from being destitute cl learning, as you have already 
observed; but his reputed purity of diction was chiefly 
owing to the sweetness of his voice and the delicacy of his 
accent. Cotta, who, by his bioad pronunciation, lost all 
resemblance of the elegant tone of the Greeks, and affected a 
harsh and rustic utterance, quite opposite to that of Catulus, 
acquired the same reputation of correctness, by pursuing a 
wild and unfrequented path. But Sisenna, who had the am- 
bition to think of reforming our phraseology, could not be 
lashed out of his whimsical and new-fangled turns of expres- 
sion, by all the raillery of Caius Eusius." " What do you refer 
to ?" said Brutus \ " and who was the Caius Riisius you are 



480 BRUTUS ; OR, 

speaking of?" "He was a noted prosecutor," replied he, 
" some years ago. When this man had supported an indict- 
ment against one Caius E-utihus, Sisenna, who was counsel 
for the defendant, told him, that several parts of his accu- 
sation were spitatical} LXXY. My lords, cried Eusius 
to the judges, / shall he cruelly over-reached, unless you 
give me your assistance. His charge overpowers my com- 
prehension; and I am afraid he has some unfair design 
upon me. What, in the name of heaven, can he intend by 
SPITATICAL ? / hnow the meaning of spit, or spittle ; hut this 
horrid atical, at the end of it, absolutely puzzles me. The 
whole bench laughed very heartily at the singular oddity of 
the expression; my old friend, however, was still of opinion, 
that to speak correctly, was to speak differently from other 
people. 

" But Caesar, who was guided by the principles of art, has 
corrected the imperfections of a vicious custom, by adopting 
the rules and improvements of a good one, as he found them 
occasionally displayed in the course of polite conversation. 
Accordingly, to the purest elegance of expression, (which is 
equally necessary to every well-bred citizen, as to an orator,) 
he has added all the various ornaments of elocution ; so that 
he seems to exhibit the finest painting in the most advan- 
tageous point of view. As he has such extraordinary merit 
even in the tenor of his language, I must confess that there 
is no person I know of, to whom he should yield the prefer- 
ence. Besides, his manner of speaking, both as to his voice 
and gesture, is splendid and noble, without the least appear- 
ance of artifice or affectation ; and there is a dignity in his 
very presence, which bespeaks a great and elevated mind." 
" Indeed," said Brutus, " his orations please me highly ; for 
I have had the satisfaction to read several of them. He has 
likewise written some commentaries, or short memoirs, of 
his own transactions." " And such," said I, " as merit the 
highest approbation ; for they are plain, correct, and graceful, 
and divested of all the ornaments of language, so as to appear 
(if I may be allowed the expression) in a kind of undress. 
But while he pretended only to furnish the loose materials, 
for such as might be inclined to compose a regular history, 

* In the origin al sputatilica, worthy to be spit upon. It appears, 
from the connexion, to have been a word whimsically derived by the 
author of it from sputa, spittle. . 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 481 

lie may, perhaps, have gratified the vanity of a few literary 
frisseurs; but he has certainly prevented all sensible men 
from attempting any improvement on his plan. For, in his- 
tory, nothing is more pleasing than a correct and elegant 
brevity of expression. With your leave, however, it is high 
time to return to those orators who have quitted the stage 
of life. 

LXXYI. " Caius Sicinius, then, who was a grandson of the 
censor Quintus Pompey, by one of his daughters, died after 
his advancement to the queestorship. He was a speaker of 
some merit and reputation, which he derived from the system 
of Hermagoras ; who, though he furnished but little assist- 
ance for acquiring an ornamental style, gave many useful 
precepts to expedite and improve the invention of an orator. 
For in this system we have a collection of fixed and determi- 
nate rules for public speaking ; which are delivered indeed 
without any show or parade, (and I might have added, in 
a trivial and homely form,) but yet are so plain and me- 
thodical, that it is almost impossible to mistake the road. 
By keeping close to these, and always digesting his subject 
before he ventured to speak upon it, (to which we may add, 
that he had a tolerable fluency of expression,) he so far suc- 
ceeded, without any other assistance, as to be ranked among 
the pleaders of the day. As to Caius Yisellius Yarro, who 
was my cousin, and a contemporary of Sicinius, he was a man 
of great learning. He died while he was a member of the 
court of inquests, into which he had been admitted after the 
expiration of his aedileship. The public, T confess, had not the 
same opinion of his abilities that I have : for he never passed 
as a man of sterling eloquence among the people. His speech 
was excessively quick and rapid, and consequently indistinct ; 
for, in fact, it was embarrassed and obscured by the celerity 
of its course ; and yet, after all, you w^ill scarcely find a man 
w^ho had a better choice of words, or a richer vein of sen- 
timent. He had besides, a complete fund of polite literature, 
and a thorough knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence, 
which he learned from his father Aculeo. To proceed in 
our account of the dead, the next that presents himself is 
Lucius Torquatus, whom you will not so readily pronounce 
a proficient in the art of speaking (though he was by no 
means destitute of elocution), as what is called by the 
Greeks, a political adept. He had a plentiful stock of 

I T 



482 BRUTU3J OR. 

learning, not indeed of the common sort, but of a more 
abstruse and curious nature ; he had likewise an admirable 
memory, and a very sensible and elegant turn of expression ; 
all which qualities derived an additional grace from the 
dignity of his deportment, and the integrity of his manners. 
I was also highly pleased with the style of his contemporary 
Triarius, which expressed to perfection the character of a 
worthy old gentleman, who had been thoroughly polished by 
the refinements of literature. What a venerable severity 
was there in his look ! what forcible solemnity in his lan- 
guage ! and how thoughtful and deliberate every word he 
spoke !'* At the mention of Torquatus and Triarius, for each 
of whom he had the most affectionate veneration, " It fills 
my heart with anguish," said Brutus, " (to omit a thousand 
other circumstances,) when I reflect, as I cannot help doing, 
on your mentioning the names of these worthy men, that 
your long-respected authority was insufficient to procure 
an accommodation of our differences. The republic would 
not otherwise have been deprived of these, and many other 
excellent citizens." " Not a word more," said I, '^ on this 
melancholy subject, which can only aggravate our sorrow ; 
for as the remembrance of what is already past is painful 
enough, the prospect of what is yet to come is still more 
afflicting. Let us, therefore, drop our unavailing complaints, 
and (agreeably to our plan) confine our attention to the 
forensic merits of our deceased friends. 

LXXVII. " Among those, then, who lost their lives in this 
unhappy war, was Marcus Bibulus, who, though not a pro- 
fessed orator, was a very accurate writer, and a solid and 
experienced advocate ; and Appius Claudius, your father-in- 
law, and my colleague and intimate acquaintance, who was 
not only a hard student, and a man of learning, but a prac- 
tised orator, a skilful augurist and civilian, and a thorough 
adept in the Eoman history. As to Lucius Domitius, he 
was totally unacquainted with any rules of art ; but he spoke 
his native language with purity, and had a great freedom of 
address. We had likewise the two Lentuli, men of consular 
dignity ; one of whom, (I mean Publius,) the avenger of my 
wrongs, and the author of my restoration, derived all his 
powers and accomplishments from the assistance of art, and 
not from the bounty of nature ; but he had such a great and 
noble disposition, that he claimed all the honours of the most 



REMARKS OX EMINENT ORATORS. 483 

illustrious citizens, and supported them with the utmost 
dignity of character. The other (Lucius Lentulus) was an 
animated speaker, for it would be saying too much, perhaps, 
to call him an orator ; but, unhappily, he had an utter aver- 
sion to the trouble of thinking. His voice was sonorous ; and 
his language, though not absolutely harsh and forbidding, 
was warm and vigorous, and carried in it a kind of terror. 
In a judicial trial, you would probably have wished for a 
more agreeable and a keener advocate ; but in a debate on 
matters of government, you would have thought his abilities 
sufficient. Even Titus Postumius had such powei^ of utter- 
ance as were not to be despised ; but in political matters, he 
spoke with the same unbridled ardour he fought with ; in 
short, he was much too warm ; though it must be owned he 
possessed an extensive knowledge of the laws and constitution 
of his country." 

^' Upon my word," cried Atticus, " if the persons you have 
mentioned were still living, I should be apt to imagine that 
you were endeavouring to solicit their favour. For you intro- 
duce everybody who had the courage to stand up and speak 
his mind ; so that I almost begin to wonder how Marcus 
Servilius has escaped your notice." LXXVIII. " I am, 
indeed, very sensible," replied I, "that there have been 
many who never spoke in public, that were much better 
qualified for the task, than those orators I have taken the 
pains to enumerate;^ but I have, at least, answered one pur- 
pose by it, which is to show you, that in this populous city we 
have not had very many who had the resolution to speak at 
all j and that even among these, there have been few who were 
entitled to our applause. I cannot, therefore, neglect to take 
some notice of those worthy knights, and my intimate friends, 
very lately deceased, Publius Cominius Spoletinus, against 
whom I pleaded in defence of Caius Cornelius, and who was 
a methodical, spirited, and ready speaker; and Tiberius 
Accius, of Pisaurum, to whom I replied in behalf of Aulus 
Cluentius, and who was an accurate, and a tolerably copious 
advocate : he was also well instructed in the precepts of Her- 
magoras, which, though of little service to embellish and 
enrich our elocution, furnish a variety of arguments, which, 
like the weapons of the light infantry, may be readily 
managed, and are adapted to every subject of debate. I must 

^ This was probably intended as an indirect compliment to Atticus. 

ii2 



484 Brutus; or, 

add, that I never knew a man of greater industry and appli- 
cation. As to Cains Piso, my son-in-law, it is scarcely possible 
to mention any one who was blessed with a finer capacity. 
He was constantly employed either in public speaking, and 
private declamatory exercises, or, at least, in writing and 
thinking : and, consequently, he made such a rapid progress, ' 
that he rather seemed to fly than to run. He had an elegant 
choice of expression, and the structure of his periods was 
perfectly neat and harmonious ; he had an astonishing variety 
and strength of argument, and a lively and agreeable turn of 
thought; and his gesture was naturally so graceful, that it 
appeared to have been formed (which it really was not) by 
the nicest rules of art. I am rather fearful, indeed, that 
I should be thought to have been prompted by my affection 
for him to have given him a greater character than he 
deserved ; but this is so far from being the case, that I might 
justly have ascribed to him many qualities of a different and 
more valuable nature ; for in continence, social ardour, and 
every other kind of virtue, there was scarcely any of his 
contemporaries who was worthy to be compared with him. 

LXXIX. " Marcus Caelius too must not pass unnoticed, 
notwithstanding the unhappy change, either of his fortune or 
disposition, which marked the latter part of his life. As long 
as he was directed by my influence, he behaved himself so 
well as a tribune of the people, that no man supported the 
interests of the senate, and of all the good and virtuous, in 
opposition to the factious and unruly madness of a set of 
abandoned citizens, with more firmness than he did ; a part 
in which he was enabled to exert himself to great advantage, 
by the force and dignity of his language, and his lively 
humour and polite address. He spoke several harangues in 
a very sensible style, and three spirited invectives, which 
originated from our political disputes; and his defensive 
speeches, though not equal to the former, were yet tolerably 
good, and had a degree of merit which was far from being 
contemptible. After he had been advanced to the sedileship, 
by the hearty approbation of all the better sort of citizens, as 
he had lost my company (for I was then abroad in Cilicia) he 
likewise lost himself ; and entirely sunk his credit, by imitat- 
ing the conduct of those very men, whom he had before sa 
successfully opposed. But Marcus Calidius has a more parti- 
cular claim to our notice for the singularity of his character 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 485 

which cannot so properly be said to have entitled him 
to a place among our other orators, as to distinguish him 
from the whole fraternity; for in him we beheld the most 
uncommon and the most delicate sentiments, arrayed in the 
softest and finest language imaginable. Nothing could be 
so easy as the turn and compass of his periods ; nothing so 
ductile ; nothing more pliable and obsequious to his will ; so 
that he had a greater command of words than any orator what- 
ever. In short, the flow of his language was so pure and 
limpid, that nothing could be clearer; and so free, that it 
was never clogged or obstructed. Every word was exactly 
in the place where it should be, and disposed (as Lucilius 
expresses it) with as much nicety as in a curious piece of 
mosaic work. We may add, that he had not a single expres- 
sion which was either harsh, unnatural, abject, or far-fetched ; 
and yet he was so far from confining himself to the plain and 
ordinary mode of speaking, that he abounded greatly in the 
metaphor, — but such metaphors as did not appear to usurp a 
post that belonged to another, but only to occupy their own. 
These delicacies were displayed, not in a loose and effeminate 
style, but in such a one as was strictly numerous, without 
either appearing to be so, or running on with a dull uni- 
formity of sound. He was likewise master of the various 
ornaments of language and thought which the Greeks call 
ilgures, whereby he enlivened and embellished his style as 
with so many forensic decorations. We may add that he 
readily discovered, upon all occasions, what was the real 
point of debate, and where the stress of the argument lay ; 
and that his method of ranging his ideas w^as extremely artful, 
his action gentlemanly, and his whole manner very engaging 
and very sensible. LXXX. In short, if to speak agreeably is 
the chief merit of an orator, you will find no one who was 
better qualified than Calidius. 

^' But as we have observed a little before, that it is the 
business of an orator to instruct, to please, and to move the 
'passions; he was, indeed, perfectly master of the first two; for 
no one could better elucidate his subject, or charm the atten- 
tion of his audience. But as to the third qualification, the 
moving and alarming the passions, which is of much greater 
efficacy than the former, he was wholly destitute of it. He 
had no force, no exertion ; either by his own choice, and 
from an opinion that those who had a loftier turn of expres- 



486 BRUTUS j OR, 

sion, and a more warm and spirited action, were little better 
than madmen; or because it was contrary to his natural 
temper and habitual practice; or, lastly, because it was 
beyond the strength of his abilities. If, indeed, it is a useless 
quality, his want of it was a real excellence; but if otherwise, 
it was certainly a defect. I particularly remember, that 
when he prosecuted Quintus Gallius for an attempt to poison 
him, and pretended that he had the plainest proofs of it, and 
could produce many letters, witnesses, informations, and 
other evidences to put the truth of his charge beyond a 
doubt, interspersing many sensible and ingenious remarks on 
the nature of the crime ; — I remember, I say, that when it 
«ame to my turn to reply to him, after urging every argu- 
ment which the case itself suggested, I insisted upon it as a 
material circumstance in favour of my client, that the prose- 
cutor, while he charged him with a design against his life, and 
assured us that he had the most indubitable proofs of it then 
in his hands, related his story with as much ease, and as 
much calmness and indifference, as if nothing had happened. 
' Would it have been possible,' said I, (addressing myself to 
Calidius,) * that you should speak with this air of unconcern, 
unless the charge was purely an invention of your own ? And, 
above all, that you, whose eloquence has often vindicated the 
wrongs of other people with so much spirit, should speak so 
coolly of a crime which threatened your lifel Where was 
that expression of resentment which is so natural to the in- 
jured 1 Where that ardour, that eagerness, which extorts the 
most pathetic language even from men of the dullest capa- 
cities ? There was no visible disorder in your mind, no 
emotion in your looks and gesture, no smiting of the thigh or 
the forehead, nor even a single stamp of the foot. You were, 
therefore, so far from interesting our feelings in your favour, 
that we could scarcely keep our eyes open, while you were 
relating the dangers you had so narrowly escaped.' Thus we 
employed the natural defect, or, if you please, the sensible 
calmness of an excellent orator, as an argument to invalidate 
:ais charge." " But is it possible to doubt," cried Brutus, 
*' whether this was a sensible quality, or a defect *? For as the 
greatest merit of an orator is to be able to inflame the 
passions, and give them such a bias as shall best answer his 
purpose; he who is destitute of this must certainly be de- 
ficient in the most capital part of his profession." 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 48/ 

LXXXI. " I am of the same opinion," said I ; "but let nf 
Qow proceed to him (Hortensius) who is the only remainir^ 
orator worth noticing; after which, as you seem to insi&r 
upon it, I shall say something of myself I must first, how 
ever, do justice to the memory of two promising youths, 
who, if they had lived to a riper age, would have acquired the 
highest reputation for their eloquence." " You mean, I 
suppose," said Brutus, '^ Caius Curio, and Gains Licinius 
Calvus." '' The very same." replied I. " One of them, besides 
his plausible manner, had such an easy and voluble flow 
of expression, and such an inexhaustible variety, and some- 
times accuracy of sentiment, that he was one of the most 
ready and ornamental speakers of his time. Though he had 
received but little instruction from the professed masters 
of the art, nature had furnished him with an admirable capa- 
city for the practice of it. I never, indeed, discovered in him 
any great degree of application ; but he was certainly very 
ambitious to distinguish himself; and if he had continued to 
listen to my advice, as he had iDCgun to do, he would have 
preferred the acquisition of real honour to that of untimely 
grandeur." " What do you mean ?" said Brutus ; ^' or in what 
manner are these two objects to be distinguished?" " I dis- 
tinguish them thus," replied I ; "as honour is the reward of 
virtue, conferred upon a man by the choice and affection of 
his fellow-citizens, he who obtains it by their free votes and 
suffrages is to be considered, in my opinion, as an honourable 
member of the community. But he who acquires his power 
and authority by taking advantage of every unhappy incident, 
and without the consent of his fellow-citizens, as Curio aimed 
to do, acquires only the name of honour, without the sub- 
stance. Whereas, if he had hearkened to me, he would have 
risen to the highest dignity, in an honourable manner, and 
with the hearty approbation of all men, by a gradual advance- 
ment to public offices, as his father and many other eminent 
citizens had done before. I often gave the same advice to 
Publius Crassus, the son of Marcus, who courted my friend- 
ship in the early part of his life ; and recommended it to him 
very warmly, to consider that as the truest path to honour 
which had been already marked out to him by the example 
of his ancestors. For he had been extremely well educated, 
and was perfectly versed in every branch of polite literature ; 
he had likewise a penetrating genius, and an elegant variety 



488 BRUTUS ; or, 

of expression; and appeared grave and sententious without 
arrogance, and modest and diffident without dejection. But, 
like many other young men, he was carried away by the tide 
of ambition ; and after serving a short time with reputation 
as a volunteer, nothing could satisfy him but to try his for- 
tune as a general, an employment which was confined by the 
wisdom of our ancestors to men who had arrived at a certain 
age, and who, even then, were obliged to submit their pre- 
tensions to the uncertain issue of a public decision. Thus, by 
exposing himself to a fatal catastrophe, while he was endea- 
vouring to rival the fame of Cyrus and Alexander, who lived to 
finish their desperate career, he lost all resemblance of Lucius 
Crassus, and his other worthy progenitors. LXXXII. But 
let us return to Calvus, whom we have just mentioned, an 
orator who had received more literary improvements than 
Curio, and had a more accurate and delicate manner of speak- 
ing, which he conducted with great taste and elegance ; but, 
(by being too minute and nice a critic upon himself.) while 
he was labouring to correct and refine his language, he suf- 
fered all the force and spirit of it to evaporate. In short, it 
was so exquisitely polished, as to charm the eye of every skilful 
observer; but it was little noticed by the common people in 
a crowded forum, which is the proper theatre of eloquence." 
" His aim," said Brutus, " was to be admired as an Attic 
orator ; and to this we must attribute that accurate exility of 
style, which he constantly affected." " This, indeed, was his 
professed character," replied I ; " but he was deceived him- 
self, and led others into the same mistake. It is true, who- 
ever supposes that to speak in the Attic taste, is to avoid every 
awkward, every harsh, every vicious expression, has, in this 
sense, an undoubted right to refuse his approbation to every- 
thing which is not strictly Attic, For he must naturally 
detest whatever is insipid, disgusting, or incorrect ; while 
he considers correctness and propriety of language as the 
rehgion and good-manners of an orator ; and every one who 
pretends to speak in public should adopt the same opinion. 
But if he bestows the name of Atticism on a meagre, a dry, 
and a niggardly turn of expression, provided it is neat, correct, 
and polished, I cannot say, indeed, that he bestows it im- 
properly ; as the Attic orators, however, had many qualities 
of a more important nature, I would advise him to be careful 
that he does not overlook their different kinds and deorrees of 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 489 

merit, and their great extent and variety of character. The 
Attic speakers, he will tell me, are the models upon which he 
wishes to form his eloquence. But which of them does he 
mean to fix upon ? for they are not all of the same cast. 
Who, for instance, could be more unlike each other than 
Demosthenes and Lysias? or than Demosthenes and Hy- 
perides 1 Or who more different from either of them, than 
^schines 1 Which of them, then, do you propose to imitate ? 
If only onej this will be a tacit implication, that none of the 
rest were true masters of Atticism ; if all, how can you 
possibl}^ succeed, when their characters are so opposite 1 Let 
me further ask you, whether Demetrius Phalereus spoke in 
the Attic style ? In my opinion, his orations have the very 
taste of Athens. But he is certainly more florid than either 
Hyperides or Lysias ; partly from the natural turn of his 
genius, and partly by choice. 

LXXXIII. '* There were likewise two others at the time 
we are speaking of, whose characters were equally dissimilar ; 
and yet both of them were truly Attic, The first (Charisius) 
was the author of a number of speeches, which he composed 
for his friends, professedly in imitation of Lysias ; and the 
other (Demochares, the nephew of Demosthenes) wrote several 
orations, and a regular history of what was transacted in 
Athens under his own observation ; not so much, indeed, in 
the style of an historian, as of an orator. Hegesias took the 
former for his model, and was so vain of his own taste for 
Atticism, that he considered his predecessors, who were really 
masters of it, as mere rustics in comparison of himself. But 
what can be more insipid, more frivolous, or more puerile, 
than that very concinnity of expression which he actually 
acquired ? ^ But still we wish to resemble the Attic speakers.' 
Do so by all means. But were not those, then, true Attic 
speakers, we have just been mentioning ? ^ Nobody denies 
it ; and these are the men we imitate.' But how ? when 
they are so very different, not only from each other, but from 
all the rest of their contemporaries 1 * True ; but Thucydides 
is our leading pattern.' This, too, I can allow, if you design 
to compose histories, instead of pleading causes. For Thu- 
cydides was both an exact and a stately historian ; but he 
never intended to write models for conducting a judicial pro- 
cess. I will even go so far as to add, that I have often com- 
mended the speeches which he has inserted in his history 



490 



35BUTUS ; OR, 



in great numbers ; though I must frankly own, that I neither 
could imitate them, if I would, nor indeed would, if I could ; 
like a man who would neither choose his wine so new as to 
have been tunned off in the preceding vintage, nor so exces- 
sively old as to date its age from the consulship of Opimius 
or Anicius. ^ The latter,' you will say, ^ bears the highest price.' 
Very probably ; but when it has too much age, it has lost 
that delicious flavour which pleases the palate, and, in my 
opinion, is scarcely tolerable. ^ Would you choose, then, 
when you have a mind to regale yourself, to apply to a fresh, 
unripened cask V By no means ; but still there is a certain 
age, when good wine arrives at its utmost perfection. In the 
same manner, I would recommend neither a raw, unmellowed 
style, which (if I may so express myself) has been newly 
drawn off from the vat \ nor the rough and antiquated lan- 
guage of the grave and manly Thucydides. For even he, if 
he had lived a few years later, would have acquired a much 
softer and mellower turn of expression. 

'^ * Let us, then, imitate Demosthenes.' LXXXTY. Good 
Gods ! to what else do 1 direct all my endeavours, and my 
wishes ! But it is, perhaps, my misfortune not to succeed. 
These Atticisers, however, acquire with ease the paltry cha- 
racter they aim at ; not once recollecting that it is not only 
recorded in history, but must have been the natural con- 
sequence of his superior fame, that when Demosthenes was to 
speak in public, all Greece flocked in crowds to hear him. 
But when our Attic orators venture to speak, they are pre- 
sently deserted, not only by the little throng around them 
who have no interest in the dispute, (which alone is a morti- 
fying proof of their insignificance,) but even by their associates 
and fellow-advocates. If to speak, therefore, in a dry and 
lifeless manner, is the true criterion of Atticism, they are 
heartily welcome to enjoy the credit of it ; but if they wish 
to put their abilities to the trial, let them attend the Comitia, 
or a judicial process of real importance. The open forum 
demands a fuller and more elevated tone ; and he is the 
orator for me, who is so universally admired, that when he 
is to plead an interesting cause, all the benches are filled 
beforehand, the tribunal crowded, the clerks and notaries 
busy in adjusting their seats, the populace thronging about 
the rostra, and the judge brisk and vigilant ; he, who has 
such a commanding air, that when he rises up to speak, the 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 491 

whole audience is hushed into a profound silence, which is 
soon interrupted by their repeated plaudits and acclamations, 
or by those successive bursts of laughter, or violent transports 
of passion, which he knows how to excite at his pleasure ; so 
that even a distant observer, though unacquainted with the 
subject he is speaking upon, can easily discover that his 
hearers are pleased with him, and that a Roscius is perform- 
ing his part on the stage. Whoever has the happiness to be 
thus followed and applauded, is, beyond dispute, an Attic 
speaker; for such was Pericles, such was Hyperides, and 
-^schines, and such, in the most eminent degree, was the 
great Demosthenes ! If, indeed, these connoisseurs, who have 
so much dislike to everything bold and ornamental, only 
mean to say that an accurate, a judicious, and a neat and 
compact, but unembellished style, is really an Attic one, they 
are not mistaken. For in an art of such wonderful extent 
and variety as that of speaking, even this subtile and coniBned 
character may claim a place ; so that the conclusion will be, 
thiat it is very possible to speak in the Attic taste without 
deserving the name of an orator ; but that all, in general, 
who are truly eloquent, are likewise Attic speakers. 

" It is time, however, to return to Hortensius." LXXXY 
"Indeed, I think so," cried Brutus; "though I must acknow- 
ledge that this long digression of yours has entertained me 
very agreeably." " But I made some remarks," said Atticus, 
^' which I was several times inclined to mention ; only I was 
loth to interrupt you. As your discourse, however, seems 
to be drawing towards an end, I think I may venture to state 
them." " By all means," replied I. '^ I readily grant, then," 
said he, " that there is something very humorous and elegant 
in that continued irony, which Socrates employs to so much 
advantage in the dialogues of Plato, Xenophon, and iEschines. 
For when a dispute commences on the nature of wisdom, he 
professes, with a gTcat deal of humour and ingenuity, to have 
no pretensions to it himself ; while, with a kind of concealed 
raillery, he ascribes the highest degree of it to those who had 
the arrogance to lay an open claim to it. Thus, in Plato, he 
extols Protagoras, Hippias, Prodicus, Gorgias and several 
others, to the skies ; but represents himself as quite ignorant. 
This in him was peculiarly becoming ; nor can 1 agree with 
Epicurus, who thinks it censurable. But in a professed 
history, (for such, in fact, is the account you have been giving 



492 



BRUTUS j OR, 



US of the Roman orators,) I shall leave you to judge, whether 
an application of the irony is not equally reprehensible, as 
it would be in giving judicial evidence." " Pray, what are 
you driving at?" said I ; "for I cannot comprehend you." 
" I mean," replied he, " in the first place, that the commen- 
dations which you have bestowed upon some of our orators, 
have a tendency to mislead the opinion of those who are 
unacquainted with their true characters. There were like- 
wise several parts of your account, at which I could scarcely 
forbear laughing ; as, for instance, when you compared old 
Cato to Lysias. He was, indeed, a great, and a very extra- 
ordinary man. Nobody, I believe, will say to the contrary. 
But shall we call him an orator ? Shall we pronounce him 
the rival of Lysias, who was the most finished character of the 
kind? If we mean to jest, this comparison of yours would 
form a pretty irony ; but if we are talking in real earnest, 
we should pay the same scrupulous regard to truth, as if we 
were giving evidence upon oath. As a citizen, a senator, 
a general, and, in short, a man who was distinguished by his 
prudence, his activity, and every other virtue, your favourite 
Cato has my highest approbation. I can likewise applaud 
his speeches, considering the time he lived in. They exhibit 
the outlines of a great genius ; but such, however, as are 
evidently rude and imperfect. In the same manner, when 
you represented his Antiquities as replete with all the graces 
of oratory, and compared Cato with Philistus and Thucydides, 
did you really imagine, that you could persuade Brutus 
and me to believe you ? or would you seriously degrade those, 
whom none of the Greeks themselves have been able to equal, 
into a comparison with a stiff country gentleman, who scarcely 
suspected that there was any such thing in being as a copious 
and ornamental style ? 

LXXXVI. " You have likewise said much in commenda- 
tion of Galba ; — if as the best speaker of his age, I can so far 
agree with you, for such was the character he bore ; — but 
if you meant to recommend him as an orator, produce his 
orations (for they are still extant), and then tell me honestly, 
whether you would wish your friend Brutus here to speak as 
he did ? Lepidus, too, was the author of several speeches, 
which have received your approbation ; in which I can 
partly join with you, if you consider them only as specimens 
of our ancient eloquence. The same might be said of Afri- 



EEMABKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 493 

canus and Laelius, than whose language (you tell us) nothing 
in the world can be sweeter j nay, you have mentioned it 
with a kind of veneration, and endeavoured to dazzle our 
judgment by the great character they bore, and the uncom- 
mon elegance of their manners. Divest it of these adven- 
titious graces, and this sweet language of theirs will appear 
so homely, as to be scarcely worth noticing. Carbo, too, 
was mentioned as one of our capital orators ; and for this 
only reason, — that in speaking, as in all other professions, 
whatever is the best of its kind, for the time being, how 
deficient soever in reality, is always admired and applauded. 
What I have said of Carbo, is equally true of the Gracchi ; 
though, in some jjarticulars, the character you have given 
them was no more than they deserved. But to say nothing 
of the rest of your orators, let us proceed to Antonius and 
Crassus, your two paragons of eloquence, whom I have heard 
myself, and who were certainly very able speakers. To the 
extraordinary commendation you have bestowed upon them, 
I can readily give my assent ; but not, however, in such an 
unlimited manner as to persuade myself that you have 
received as much improvement from the speech in support of 
the Servilian law, as Lysippus said he had done by studying 
the famous statue^ of Polycletus. What you have said on 
this occasion I consider as absolute irony ; but I shall not 
inform you why I think so, lest you should imagine I design 
to flatter you. I shall therefore pass over the many fine 
encomiums you have bestowed upon these ; and what you 
have said of Cotta and Sulpicius, and but very lately of your 
pupil Ceelius. I acknowledge, however, that we may call 
them orators ; but as to the nature and extent of their merit, 
let your own judgment decide. It is scarcely worth observing, 
that you have had the additional good-nature to crowd so 
many daubers into your list, that there are some, I believe, 
who will be ready to wish they had died long ago, that you 
might have had an opportunity to insein: their names among 
the rest." LXXXYII. " You have opened a wide field of in- 
quiry," said I, ^' and started a subject which deserves a separate 
discussion ; but we must defer it to a more convenient time. 
For, to settle it, a great variety of authors must be examined, 
and especially Cato ; which could not fail to convince you, that 
nothing was wanting to complete his pieces, but those rich 
^ Doryphorus. A spearman. 



494 BRUTUS ; or, 

and glowing colours which had not then been invented. As 
to the above oration of Crassus, he himself, perhaps, could 
have written better, if he had been willing to take the 
trouble ; but nobody else, I believe, could have mended it. 
You have no reason, therefore, to think I spoke ironically, 
when I mentioned it as the guide and tutoress of my eloquence ; 
for though you seem to have a higher opinion of my capacity, 
in its present state, you must remember that, in our youth, 
we could find nothing better to imitate among the Romans. 
And as to my admitting so many into my list of orators, 
I only did it (as I have already observed) to show how few 
have succeeded in a profession, in which all were desirous to 
excel. I therefore insist upon it that you do not consider me 
in the present case as sl practiser of irony; though we are in- 
formed by Caius Fannius, in his history, that Africanus was a 
very excellent one." *^As you please about that,'' cried Atticus j 
*' though, by the bye, T did not imagine it would have been 
any disgrace to you, to be what Africanus and Socrates have 
been before you." '' We may settle this another time," in- 
terrupted Brutus ; " but will you be so obliging," said he, 
(addressing himself to me,) " as to give us a critical analysis 
of some of the old speeches you have mentioned V " Very 
willingly," replied I ; " but it must be at Cuma, or Tusculum, 
when opportunity offers : for we are near neighbours, you 
know, in both places. LXXXVIIT. At present, let us 
return to Hortensius, from whom we have digressed a second 
time. 

" Hortensius, then, who began to speak in public when he 
was very young, was soon employed even in causes of the 
greatest moment ; and though he first appeared in the time of 
Cotta and Sulpicius, (who were only ten years older,) and when 
Crassus and Antonius, and afterwards Philippus and Julius, 
were in the height of their reputation, he was thought worthy 
to be compared with either of them in point of eloquence. 
He had such an excellent memory as I never knew in any 
person ; so that what he had composed in private, he was 
able to repeat, without notes, in the very same words he had 
made use of at first. He employed this natural advantage 
with so much readiness, that he not only recollected whatever 
he had written or premeditated himself, but remembered 
everything that had been said by his opponents, without the 
help of a prompter. He was likewise inflamed with such 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 495 

a passionate fondness for the profession, that I never saw any 
one who took more pains to improve himself; for he would 
not suffer a day to elapse without either speaking in the 
forum, or composing something at home ; and very often he 
did both in the same day. He had, besides, a turn of expres- 
sion which was very far from being low and unelevated ; and 
possessed two other accomplishments, in which no one could 
equal him, — an uncommon clearness and accuracy in stating 
the points he was to discuss ; and a neat and easy manner of 
collecting the substance of what had been said by his anta- 
gonist, and by himself. He had likewise an elegant choice 
of words, an agreeable flow in his periods, and a copious 
elocution, for which he was partly indebted to a fine natural 
capacity, and which was partly acquired by the most laborious 
rhetorical exercises. In short, he had a most retentive view of 
his subject, and always divided and distributed it into distinct 
parts with the greatest exactness ; and he very seldom over- 
looked anything which the case could suggest, that was proper 
either to support his own allegations, or to refute those of his 
opponent. Lastly, he had a sweet and sonorous voice ; but 
his gesture had rather more art in it. and was managed with 
more precision than is requisite in an orator. 

" While he was in the height of his glory, Crassus died, 
Cotta was banished, our public trials were intermitted by the 
Marsic war, and I myself made my first appearance in the 
forum. LXXXIX. Hortensius joined the army, and served 
the first campaign as a volunteer, and the second as a military 
tribune; Sulpicius was made a lieutenant-general; and An- 
tonius was absent on a similar account. The only trial w^e 
had, was that upon the Yarian law ; the rest, as I have just 
observed, having been intermitted by the war. We had 
scarcely anybody left at the bar but Lucius Memmius and 
Quintus Pompeius, who spoke mostly on their own affiiirs ; 
and, though far from being orators of the first distinction, 
were yet tolerable ones, (if we may credit Philippus, who was 
himself a man of some eloquence,) and, in supporting 
evidence, displayed all the poignancy of a prosecutor, with a 
moderate freedom of elocution. The rest, who were esteemed 
our capital speakers, were then in the magistracy, and I had 
the benefit of hearing their harangues almost every day. 
Caius Curio was chosen a tribune of the people, though he 
left off speaking after beino; once deserted by his whole 



^yC) BRUTUS ; OR, 

audience. To him I may add Quintus Metellus Celer, who, 
though certainly no orator, was far from being destitute of 
utterance ; but Quintus Yarius, Caius Carbo, and Cnseus 
Pomponius, were men of real elocution, and might almost be 
said to have lived upon the rostra. Caius Julius too, who was 
then a curule eedile, was daily employed in making speeches 
to the people, which were composed with great neatness and 
accuracy. But while I attended the forum with this eager 
curiosity, my first disappointment was the banishment of 
Cotta ; after which I continued to hear the rest with the 
same assiduity as before ; and though I daily spent the re- 
mainder of my time in reading, writing, and private decla- 
mation, I cannot say that I much relished my confinement to 
these preparatory exercises. The next year Quintus Yarius 
was condemned, and banished by his own law ; and I, that I 
might acquire a competent knowledge of the principles of 
jurisprudence, then attached myself to Quintus Scaevola, the 
son of Publius, who, though he did not choose to undertake 
the charge of a pupil, yet, by freely giving his advice to those 
who consulted him, answered every purpose of instruction 
to such as took the trouble to apply to him. In the suc- 
ceeding year, in which Sylla and Pompey were consuls, as 
Sulpicius, who was elected a tribune of the people, had 
occasion to speak in public almost every day, I had oppor- 
tunity to acquaint myself thoroughly with his manner of 
speaking. At this time Philo, a philosopher of the first 
name in the Academy, with many of the principal Athenians, 
having deserted their native home, and fled to Eome, from 
the fury of Mithridates, I immediately became his scholar, 
and was exceedingly taken with his philosophy; and, besides 
the pleasure I received from the great variety and sublimity 
of his matter, I was still more inclined to confine my atten- 
tion to that study ; because there was reason to apprehend 
that our laws and judicial proceedings would be wholly over- 
turned by the continuance of the public disorders. In the 
same year Sulpicius lost his life; and Quintus Catulus, 
Marcus Antonius, and Caius Julius, three orators who were 
partly contemporary with each other, were most inhumanly 
put to death. Then also I attended the lectures of Molo the 
Rhodian, who was newly come to Eome, and was both an 
excellent pleader, and an able teacher of the art. 

XC. '^ I have mentioned these particulars, which, perhaps, 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 497 

may appear foreign to our purpose, that you, my Brutus, (for 
Atticus is already acquainted with them,) may be able to 
mark my progress, and observe how closely I trod upon the 
heels of Hortensius. The three following years the city was 
free from the tumult of arms; but either by the death, the 
voluntary retirement, or the flight of our ablest orators, (for 
even Marcus Crassus, and the two Lentuli, who were then in 
the bloom of youth, had all left us,) Hortensius, of course, 
was the first speaker in the forum. Antistius, too, was daily 
rising into reputation ; Piso pleaded pretty often ; Pomponius, 
not so frequently; Carbo, very seldom; and Philippus, only 
once or twice. In the meanwhile I pursued my studies of every 
kind, day and night, with unremitting application. I lodged 
and boarded at my own house (where he lately died) Diodotus 
the Stoic; whom I employed as my preceptor in various other 
parts of learning, but particularly in logic, which may be con- 
sidered as a close and contracted species of eloquence ; and 
without which, you yourself have declared it impossible to 
acquire that full and perfect eloquence, which they suppose 
to be an open and dilated kind of logic. Yet with all my atten- 
tion to Diodotus, and the various arts he was master of, I 
never suffered even a single day to escape me, without some 
exercise of the oratorical kind. I constantly declaimed in 
private with Marcus Piso, Quintus Pompeius, or some other 
of my acquaintance ; pretty often in Latin, but much oftener 
in Greek; because the Greek furnishes a greater variety of 
ornaments, and an opportunity of imitating and introducing 
them into the Latin ; and because the Greek masters, who 
were far the best, could not correct and improve us, unless we 
declaimed in that language. This time was distinguished by 
a violent struggle to restore the liberty of the republic ; the 
barbarous slaughter of the three orators, Scaevola, Carbo, and 
Antistius; the return of Cotta, Curio, Crassus, Pompey, and 
the Lentuli ; the re-establishment of the laws and courts of 
judicature, and the entire restoration of the commonwealth; 
but we lost Pomponius, Censorinus, and Murena, from the 
roll of orators. I now began, for the first time, to under- 
take the management of causes, both private and public; not, 
as most did, with a view to learn my profession, but to make 
a trial of the abilities which I had taken so much pains to 
acquire. I had then a second opportunity of attending the 
instructions of Molo, who came to Eome while Sylla was 

E E 



498 . BRUTUS j OR, 

dictator, to solicit the payment of what was due to hia 
countrymen for their services in the Mithridatic war. My 
defence of Sextus Roscius, which was the first cause I pleaded, 
met with such a favourable reception, that, from that moment, 
I was looked upon as an advocate of the first class, and equal 
to the greatest and most important causes ; and after this I 
pleaded many others, which I precomposed with all the care 
and accuracy I was master of. 

XCI. " But as you seem desirous not so much to be ac- 
quainted with any incidental marks of my character, or 
the first sallies of my youth, as to know me thoroughly, 
I shall mention some particulars, which otherwise might 
have seemed unnecessary. At this time my body was ex- 
ceedingly weak and emaciated; my neck long and slender; 
a shape and habit which I thought to be liable to great risk 
of life, if engaged in any violent fatigue, or labour of the 
lungs. And it gave the greater alarm to those who had 
a regard for me, that I used to speak without any remission 
or variation, with the utmost stretch of my voice, and a 
total agitation of my body. When my friends, therefore, and 
physicians, advised me to meddle no more with forensic 
causes, I resolved to run any hazard rather than quit the 
hopes of glory which I had proposed to myself from plead- 
ing; but when I considered, that by managing my voice, 
and changing my way of speaking, I might both avoid all 
future danger of that kind and speak with greater ease, 
I took a resolution of travelling into Asia, merely for an op- 
portunity to correct my manner of speaking ; so that after 
I had been two years at the bar, and acquired some reputa- 
tion in the forum, I left Rome. When I came to Athens, I 
spent six months with Antiochus, the principal and most 
judicious philosopher of the old Academy; and under this able 
master, I renewed those philosophical studies which I had 
laboriously cultivated and improved from my earliest youth. 
At the same time, however, I continued my rhetorical exer- 
cises under Demetrius the Syrian, an experienced and re- 
putable master of the art of speaking. After leaving Athens, 
I traversed every part of Asia, where I was voluntarily at- 
tended by the principal orators of the country, with whom I re- 
newed my rhetorical exercises. The chief of them was Menippus 
of Stratonica, the most eloquent of all the Asiatics; and 
if to be neither tedious nor impertinent is the characteristic 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 499 

of an Attic orator, he may be justly ranked in that class. 
Dionysius also of Magnesia, JEschylus of Cnidos, and Xenocles 
of Adramyttium, who were esteemed the first rhetoricians 
of Asia, were continually with me. Not contented with these, 
I went to Rhodes, and applied myself again to Molo, whom 
I had heard before at Rome ; and who was both an expe- 
rienced pleader and a fine writer, and particularly judicious in 
remarking the faults of his scholars, as well as in his method 
of teaching and improving them. His principal trouble with 
me was to restrain the luxuriancy of a juvenile imagination, 
always ready to overflow its banks, within its due and proper 
channel. Thus, after an excursion of two years, I returned to 
Italy, not only much improved, but almost changed into 
a new man. The vehemence of my voice and action was 
considerably abated; the excessive ardour of my language 
was corrected ; my lungs were strengthened ; and my whole 
constitution confirmed and settled. 

XCII. " Two orators then reigned in the forum (I mean 
Cotta and Hortensius), whose glory fired my emulation. 
Cotta's way of speaking was calm and easy, and distinguished 
by the flowing elegance and propriety of his language. The 
other was splendid, warm, and animated ; not such as you, 
my Brutus, have seen him, when he had shed the blossom of 
his eloquence, but far more lively and pathetic both in 
his style and action. As Hortensius, therefore, was nearer to 
me in age, and his manner more agreeable to the natural 
ardour of my temper, I considered him as the proper object 
of my competition. For I observed that when they were 
both engaged in the same cause, (as, for instance, when they 
defended Marcus Canuleius, and Cneius Dolabella, a man of 
consular dignity,) though Cotta was generally employed to 
open the defence, the most important parts of it were left to 
the management of Hortensius. For a crowded audience 
and a clamorous forum require an orator who is lively, ani- 
mated, full of action, and able to exert his voice to the 
highest pitch. The first year, therefore, after my return 
from Asia, I undertook several capital causes ; and in the 
interim I put up as a candidate for the queestorship, Cotta 
for the consulate, and Hortensius for the sedileship. After 
I was chosen quaestor, I passed a year in Sicily, the province 
assigned to me by lot ; Cotta went as consul into Gaul ; and 
Hortensius, whose new office required his presence at Rome, 

kk2 



500 

was left of course the undisputed sovereign of the forum. In 
the succeeding year, when I returned from Sicily, my ora- 
torical talents, such as they were, displayed themselves in 
their full perfection and maturity. 

" I have been saying too much, perhaps, concerning myself ; 
but my design in it wa^s not to make a parade of my 
eloquence and ability, which I have no temptation to do, but 
only to specify the pains and labour which I have taken 
to improve it. After spending the five succeeding years in 
pleading a variety of causes, and with the ablest advocates of 
the time, I was declared an sedile, and undertook the patronage 
of the Sicilians against Hortensius, who was then one of the 
consuls elect. XCIII. But as the subject of our conversation 
not only requires an historical detail of orators, but such 
preceptive remarks as may be necessary to elucidate their 
characters ; it will not be improper to make some observations 
of this kind upon that of Hortensius. After his appointment 
to the consulship (very probably, because he saw none of 
consular dignity who were able to rival him, and despised the 
competition of others of inferior rank) he began to remit that 
intense application which he had hitherto persevered in from 
his childhood ; and having settled himself in very affluent 
circumstances, he chose to live for the future what he thought 
an easy life, but which, in truth, was rather an indolent one. 
In the three succeeding years, the beauty of his colouring 
was so much impaired as to be very perceptible to a skilful 
connoisseur, though not to a common observer. After that, 
he grew every day more unlike himself than before, not only 
in other parts of eloquence, but by a gradual decay of the 
former celerity and elegant texture of his language. I, at the 
same time, spared no pains to improve and enlarge my 
talents, such as they were, by every exercise that was proper 
for the purpose, but particularly by that of writing. Not to 
mention several other advantages I derived from it, I shall 
only observe, that about this time, and but a very few years 
after my sedileship, I was declared the first praetor, by the 
unanimous sufirages of my fellow-citizens. For, by my 
diligence and assiduity as a pleader, and my accurate way of 
speaking, which was rather superior to the ordinary style of 
the bar, the novelty of my eloquence had engaged the atten- 
tion and secured the good wishes of the public. But I will 
say nothing of myself; I wiU confine my discourse to our 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 501 

other speakers, among whom there is not one who has gained 
more than a common acquaintance with those parts of Htera- 
ture which feed the springs of eloquence ; not one who has 
been thoroughly nurtured at the breast of Philosophy, which 
is the mother of every excellence either in deed or speech ; 
not one who has acquired an accurate knowledge of the civil 
law, which is so necessary for the management even of 
private causes, and to direct the judgment of an orator ; not 
one who is a complete master of the Roman history, which 
would enable us, on many occasions, to appeal to the venerable 
evidence of the dead ; not one who can entangle his opponent 
in such a neat and humorous manner, as to relax the severity 
of the judges into a smile or an open laugh j not one who 
knows how to dilate and expand his subject, by reducing 
it from the limited considerations of time and person, to 
some general and indefinite topic ; not one who knows how to 
enliven it by an agreeable digression ; not one who can rouse 
the indignation of the judge, or extort from him the tear of 
compassion ; or who can influence and bend his soul (which 
is confessedly the capital perfection of an orator), in such a 
manner as shall best suit his purpose. 

XCIV. ^- When Hortensius, therefore, the once eloquent 
and admired Hortensius, had almost vanished from the forum, 
my appointment to the consulship, which happened about six 
years after his own promotion to that office, revived his dying 
emulation ; for he was unwilling that, after I had equalled 
him in rank and dignity, I should become his superior in 
any other respect. But in the twelve succeeding years, by 
a mutual deference to each other's abilities, we united our 
efforts at the bar in the most amicable manner ; and my con- 
sulship, which had at first given a short alarm to his jealousy, 
afterwards cemented our friendship, by the generous candour 
with which he applauded my conduct. But our emulous 
efforts were exerted in the most conspicuous manner, just 
before the commencement of that unhappy period, when 
Eloquence herself was confounded and terrified by the din of 
arms into a sudden and total silence ; for after Pompey had 
proposed and carried a law, which allowed even the party 
accused but three hours to make his defence, I appeared 
(though comparatively as a mere noviciate by this new regu- 
lation) in a number of causes which, in fact, were become per- 
fectly the same, or very nearly so ; most of which, my Brutus, 



502 BRUTUS; OR, 

you were present to hear, as having been my partner and 
fellow-advocate in many of them, though you pleaded several 
by yourself ; and Hortensius, though he died a short time 
afterwards, bore his share in these limited efforts. He began 
to plead about ten years before the time of your birth ; and 
in his sixty-fourth year, but a very few days before his death, 
he was engaged with you in the defence of Appius, your 
father-in-law. As to our respective talents, the orations we 
have published will enable posterity to form a proper judg- 
ment of them. 

XCY. " But if we mean to inquire, why Hortensius was 
more admired for his eloquence in the younger part of his 
life than in hi?, latter years, we shall find it owing to the fol- 
lowing causes. The first was, that an Asiatic style is more 
allowable in a young man than in an old one. Of this there 
are two different kinds. The former is sententious and 
sprightly, and abounds in those turns of thought which are 
not so much distinguished by their weight and solidity as 
by their neatness and elegance ; of this cast was Timseus 
the historian, and the two orators so much talked of in 
our younger days, Hierocles of Alabanda, and his brother 
Menecles, but particularly the latter ; both whose orations 
may be reckoned master-pieces of this kind. The other sort 
is not so remarkable for the plenitude and richness of its 
thoughts, as for its rapid volubility of expression, which at 
present is the ruling taste in Asia ; but, besides its uncom- 
mon fluency, it is recommended by a choice of words which 
are peculiarly delicate and ornamental ; of this kind were 
^'Schylus the Cnidian, and my contemporary ^schines the 
Milesian ; for they had an admirable command of language, 
with very little elegance of sentiment. These showy kinds 
of eloquence are agreeable enough in young people; but they 
are entirely destitute of that gravity and composure which 
befits a riper age. As Hortensius therefore excelled in both, 
he was heard with applause in the earlier part of his life. For 
he had all that fertility and graceful variety of sentiment 
which distinguished the character of Menecles : but, as in 
Menecles, so in him, there were many turns of thought which 
were more delicate and entertaining than really useful, 
or indeed sometimes convenient. His language also was 
brilliant and rapid, and yet perfectly neat and accurate ; 
but by no means agreeable to men of riper years. I have 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORaTORS. 503 

often seen it received by Philippus with the utmost derision, 
and, upon some occasions, with a contemptuous indignation ; 
but the younger part of the audience admired it, and the 
populace were highly pleased with it. In his youth, there- 
fore, he met the warmest approbation of the public, and 
maintained his post with ease as the first orator in the forum. 
For the style he chose to speak in, though it has little weight 
or authority, appeared very suitable to his age ; and as it 
discovered in him the most visible marks of genius and appli- 
cation, and was recommended by the numerous cadence of 
his periods, he was heard with universal applause. But 
when the honours he afterwards rose to, and the dignity of 
his years, required something more serious and composed, he 
still continued to appear in the same character, though it no 
longer became him ; and as he had, for some considerable 
time, intermitted those exercises, and relaxed that laborious 
attention which had once distinguished him, though his 
former neatness of expression and luxuriancy of conception 
still remained, they were stripped of those brilliant ornaments 
they had been used to wear. For this reason, perhaps, my 
Brutus, he appeared less pleasing to you than he would have 
done, if you had been old enough to hear him, when he was 
fired with emulation, and flourished in the full bloom of his 
eloquence." 

XCYI. " I am perfectly sensible," said Brutus, ^' of the 
J Listice of your remarks ; and yet I have always looked upon 
Hortensius as a great orator, but especially when he pleaded 
for Messala, in the time of your absence." " I have often heard 
of it," replied I ; " and his oration, which was afterwards pub- 
lished, they say, in the very same words in which he delivered 
it, is no way inferior to the character you give it. Upon the 
whole, then, his reputation flourished from the time of Crassus 
and Scaevola (reckoning from the consulship of the former), 
to the consulship of Paullus and Marcellus ; and I held out 
in the same career of glory from the dictatorship of Sylla, to 
the period I have last mentioned. Thus the eloquence of 
Hortensius was extinguished by his own death, and mine by 
that of the commonwealth." " Presage more favourably, 
I beg of you," cried Brutus. " As favourably as you please," 
said I, ^' and that, not so much upon my own account as 
yours. But Jus death was truly fortunate, who did not live 
to behold the miseries which he had long foreseen ; for we 



504 BRUTUS ; OR, 

often lamented, between ourselves, the misfortunes which 
hung over the state, when we discovered the seeds of a civil 
war in the insatiable ambition of a few private citizens, and 
saw every hope of an accommodation excluded by the rash- 
ness and precipitancy of our public counsels. But the 
felicity which always marked his life seems to have exempted 
him, by a seasonable death, from the calamities that followed. 
But as, after the decease of Hortensius, we seem to have been 
left, my Brutus, as the sole guardians of an orphan eloquence, 
let us cherish her, within our own walls at least, with a gene- 
rous fidelity; let us discourage the addresses of her worthless 
and impertinent suitors ; let us preserve her pure and un- 
blemished in all her virgin charms, and secure her, to the 
utmost of our ability, from the lawless violence of every armed 
ruffian. I must own, however, though I am heartily grieved 
that I entered so late upon the road of life as to be over- 
taken by a gloomy night of public distress, before I had 
finished my journey, that I am not a little relieved by the 
tender consolation which you administered to me in your 
very agreeable letters; in which you tell me I ought to 
recollect my courage, since my past transactions are such as 
will speak for me when I am silent, and survive my death ; 
and such as, if the Gods permit, will bear an ample testimony 
to the prudence and integrity of my public counsels, by the 
final restoration of the republic ; or, if otherwise, by burying 
me in the ruins of my country. 

XCVII. " But when I look upon you, my Brutus, it fills 
me with anguish to reflect that, in the vigour of your youth, 
and when you were making the most rapid progress in the 
road to fame, your career was suddenly stopped by the fatal 
overthrow of the commonw^ealth. This unhappy circum- 
stance has stung me to the heart ; and not me only, but my 
worthy friend here, who has the same affection for you. and 
the same esteem for your merit which I have. We have the 
warmest wishes for your happiness, and heartily pray that you 
may reap the rewards of your excellent virtues, and live to 
find a republic in which you will be able, not only to revive, 
but even to add to the fame of your illustrious ancestors. 
For the forum was your birthright, your native theatre of 
action ; and you were the only person that entered it, who had 
not only formed his elocution by a rigorous course of private 
practice, but enriched his oratory with the furniture of philo- 



REMARKS ON EMINENT ORATORS. 505 

sophical science, and thus united the highest virtue to the 
most consummate eloquence. Your situation, therefore, 
wounds us with the double anxiety that you are deprived of 
the republic, and the republic of you. But still continue, my 
Brutus, (notwithstanding the career of your genius has beeij 
checked by the rude shock of our public distresses,) continue 
to pursue your favourite studies, and endeavour (what you 
have almost, or rather entirely effected already) to distinguish 
yourself from the promiscuous crowd of pleaders with which 
I have loaded the little history I have been giving you. For 
it would ill befit you (richly furnished as you are with 
those liberal arts which, unable to acquire at home, you 
imported from that celebrated city which has always been 
revered as the seat of learning) to pass after all as an 
ordinary pleader. For to what purposes have you studied 
under Pammenes, the most eloquent man in Greece ? or what 
advantage have you derived from the discipline of the old 
Academy, and its hereditary master Aristus, (my guest and 
very intimate acquaintance,) if you still rank yourself in the 
common class of orators ? Have we not seen that a whole age 
could scarcely furnish two speakers who really excelled in 
their profession? Among a crowd of contemporaries, Galba, 
for instance, was the only orator of distinction ; for old Cato 
(we are informed^ was obliged to yield to his superior merit, 
as were likewise his two juniors, Lepidus and Carbo. But, in 
a public harangue, the style of his successors, the Gracchi, was 
far more easy and lively; and yet, even in their time, the 
Roman eloquence had not reached its perfection. Afterwards 
came Antoniusand Crassus; and then Gotta, Sulpicius, Hor- 
tensius, and — but I say no more ; I can only add, that if I 
had been so fortunate [The conclusion is lost] 



INDEX. 



Academics, discipline of the, 435 ; their 
doctrines, 350. 

Academy, the, 154, 155; orators of the, 
155 ; manner of disputing in the, 164, 
et seq. ; founded by Xenocrates, 349; 
New, founded by Arcesilas, 351. 

Accent, peculiarities of, 450. 

Accius, T. remarks on, 483. 

Achilles, the friend of Brutus, 109. 

Acting, points to be observed in, 361. 

Action, nature and principles of, 364 ; 
various questions relating to, 365 ; on 
the proper use of, 398 ; the speech of 
the body, 399 ; displays the movements 
of the soul, 399. 

Actor, not condemned for being once 
mistaken in an attitude, 174; emo- 
tions of the, 274, 275. 

Acts of a play, 21, et n. 

Aculeo, 221; his great knowledge of 
law, 194. 

Acusilas, the historian, 234. 

Admonition, how to be applied, 322. 

^lius, Sextus, the Roman lawyer, 196, 
201, 422: commentaries of, 211; his 
universal knowledge, 369; orations of, 
449; remarks on, 461. 

.ffimilianus, Africanus, an ironical jester, 
302. 

.ffimilius, M. 276; an eminent orator, 
428. 

.Enigmas of metaphor, 380. 

iEschines, the orator, 155, 410; anecdote 
of, 395, 396. 

iEsop, the tragedian, 28. 

^sopus, 218. 

Afius, C. 74. 

Afranius, the senator, 53. 

Afranius, M. the poet, 449. 

Agesilaus, acquirements of, 372. 

Agitation, on commencing a speech, na- 
tural, 176. 

Agnation, law of, 187, et n. 

Agrarian law, brought in by Julius 
Caesar, 21. 

Ahenobarbus, Cn. D. the orator, 287. etn. 

Albinus, A. the historian and orator, 
423; notices of, 439. 

Albucius, T. remarks on, 438. 



Alcibiades. works of, 246, et n. ; his 
learning and eloquence, 371, 409. 

Alfius, the judge, 78. 

Alienus, the lieutenant of Q. Cicero, 6. 

Allegorical phraseology, use of, in ora- 
tory, 299. 

Allies, rights of, should be known to the 
orator, 182. 

Alpinus, S. orations of, 427. 

Ambiguity, every subject possesses the 
same susceptibleness of, 364. 

Ambiguous words, plays on, 295, 296. 

'A^0tAa0ia, abundance, 48. 

Anaxagoras, 371, 413 ; his ridiculous 
doctrine of black snow, 58. 

Anger, proneness to, 17, 18; disposition 
of Q. Cicero to, 25 ; feelings of, 280 ; 
assumes a particular tone of voice, 
397. 

Anicius, 54 ; Cicero's opinion of, 74. 

Animal body, harmony and perfection of 
the, 384. 

Annalis, 73. 

Annius, T. an orator, 423. 

Antigenidas, the musician, 454. 

Antimachus, the poet, 456. 

Antipater, of Sidon, the poet, 389. 

Antipater, L. C. the historian, 235. 

Antiphon, the essayist, 413. 

Antiquity must be known by the orator, 
182 ; study of, 194 e^ w., 195. 

Antisthenes, founder of the Cynic sand 
the Stoics, 349. 

Antistius of Pyrgi, 307. 

Antistius, P. remarks on, 468. 

Antonius, C. 97. 

Antonius, Marcus, the friend of Cicero, 
27 ; one of the orators of Cicero's 
Dialogues, 142, 149, 150, etseq.; prae- 
tor at Rhodes, 162 ; his visit to Athens, 
164 ; his merits as an orator, 310, 440, 
441 ; death of, 334. 

Antony, Caius, 107, et n. 

Antony, Mark, his political struggles on 
the death of Caesar, 90, 91 ; letter oi 
Brutus respecting, 92 ; the enemy of 
Cicero, 98, 112; named " the pro- 
consul," 99 ; his partisans declared to 
be public enemies, 104 ; his defeat. 



508 



INDEX. 



107, 119 ; flight of, 110 ; polluted with 
vice, 123 ; his dangerous power in 
Rome, 129 — 133; his tyranny and 
oppressions, 137 ; pronounced a public 
enemy, 139. 

Anxiety, feelings of, 280, 281. 
Arra^ 6ai€7v, a Greek proverb, 27. 

Apollonius, the orator of Alabanda, 174. 

Apollonius, the orator of Rhodes, 162;'] 

Appelles, the Greek painter, 420. — ^ 

Appian road. 9, et n. 

Appius, a friend of Cicero, 57, 81 ; his 
address, 58 ; wit of, 292. 

Appius, the elder, saying of, 306. 

Appius, the blind, an able speaker, 416. 

Appius Pulcher, consulship of, 55. 

Appollonia, people of, 26. 27. 

Aptitude and congruity of language, 346. 

Apuieian law, 251, et fi.; 278. 

Apuleius commended by Brutus, 109. 

Apuleius, L. the orator, 467. 

Aquilius, M. his trial and acquittal, 255, 
et n. ; defence of, 273, 275 ; remarks 
on, 467. 

Aratus, the astronomical poet, 161. 

Arcanum, a village belonging to Q. 
Cicero, 51, QQ. 

Arcesilas, founder of the New Academy, 
351. 

Argument, three things requisite for 
finding, 263 ; different modes of con- 
ducting, 267, et seq. ; the force of, to 
be resisted, 283; mode of arranging 
facts and topics of, 313, et seq. 

Arguments, the strongest to be main- 
tained, 309. 

Aristippus, founder of the Cyrenaic phi- 
losophy, 349. 

Aristotle, 154, 157; his divine genius, 
263; his acuteness of intellect, 266; 
founder of the Peripatetics, 349; his 
manner of discussing questions, 354; 
his system of teaching, 372 ; the tutor 
of Alexander, 372 ; his remarks on 
metrical quantities, 385, 386 ; nervous 
style of, 435. 

Arpinum, the birth-place of Cicero, 51, 
66,69. 

Arrius, notices of, 34, 474. 

Arsis, explanation of, 385, n. 

Art, how far necessary in oratory, &c. 
176 ; not necessary to understand 
every art, 203 ; has no concern with 
wit, 288 ; harmony in the works of, 
384, 385. 

Arts, attainments in the, 357. 

Arts and sciences, writers on the, must 
be read by the orator, 1S2; a know- 
ledge of, essential to oratory, 193. 

Ascanio, 80. 

Asclepiades, the physician, 159. 

Asellus, jests on, 297, et w., 301. 

Asia Minor, Quintus Cicero's govern- 
ment in, 1, et seq. ; Greeks of, 5, et n. ; 
temptations to peculation in, 5, 6 ; 
beneficial effects of good government 



in, 12: relieved from the taxation of 
the ^diles, 13. 

Ateius, 53. 

Athenians, learning among the, neg- 
lected, 343. 

Athens, laws of, 208; the earliest re- 
cords of eloquence there found, 408, 
409; the early orators of, 409; rheto- 
ricians of, 409. 

Attachment, law'of, 189. 

Attains, the Iphemian, 28. 

Attic, remarks on the word, 488, 489. 

Attic orators, 489, 490. 

Attica, the daughter of Atticus, 1 14, ef n. 

Atticus, T. Pomponius, Cicero's letter 
to, respecting his brother, 30, 31 ; let- 
ter of Brutus to, 111 ; conference held 
with eminent orators, 404, el seq. ; his 
abridgment of "Universal History," 
405. 

Attius, the poet, 431, 469. 

Aufidius, T. remarks on, 452. 

Aulus, Gabinius, the consul, 22. 

Aurelian law, 34, ei n. 

Autronius, P. remarks on, 473. 



Balbi, the two, 353. 

Balbus, 71; correspondence of, noticed, 
bl. 

Balbus, L. L. an able speaker, 445. 

Barrus, T. B. orations of, 449. 

Bequests, law of, 188, eb n. 

Bestia, the tribune, 112; Cicero makes 
a speech in defence of, 45 ; notices of, 
437. 

Bibulus, the consul, 2, 43, 44; resists 
the Agrarian law, 21. 

Bibulus, L. commended by Brutus, 109. 

Bibulus, M. notices of, 482. 

Bilienus, C. remarks on, 451. 

Bills of exchange, Cicero's questions 
respecting, 34. 

Blandus, in Phrygia, 23, et n. 

Books, Cicero's suggestions respecting 
the collecting of, 80. 

Bovillae, %1. 

Breath, exercise of the, 181. 

Brevity, in a speech, 318; sometimes 
obtained by metaphor, 377, 378 ; some- 
times a real excellence, 414. 

Bribery, provisions against, noticed, 34, 
et n. ; candidates for the consulship 
impeached for, 7Q ; charges of, 250. 

Briso, M. A. the tribune, 428. 

Britain, Q,. Cicero's letters on, noticed, 
65 ; Q. Cicero a resident of, 65, 71 ; 
Caesar's letter from, 75. 

Brutus, D. son of Marcus Brutus, 125, 
431; honours proposed to, 126; re- 
marks on, 451. 

Brutus, Lucius Junius, powers of his 
mind, 152 ; his great capacities, 415. 

Brutus, Marcus Junius, Cicero's letters 
to, 90, et seq. ; his letters to Cicero, 
92, 100, 106, 108, 109, 117, 128; his 



INDEX. 



509 



Struggles on the death of Caesar, 90 ; 
his letters differently arranged in dif- 
ferent editions, 93, 94 n. ; requires 
money and reinforcements, 93, 95 ; his 
military position, 98; his successes, 
104, 106 ; military forces of, 110, 119 ; 
his letter to Atticus, 111 ; Cicero's ad- 
vice to, 1 1 1 , his high opinion of Cicero, 
113, 114 ; his opinions of Octavius, 
113; his retreat from Velia, 124; re- 
fuses to solicit the clemency of Octa- 
vius, and denies his regal authority, 
128 — 133 ; Cicero's high encomium of, 
133; his return to Rome advised by 
Cicero, 133, 134; his nephews, 135; 
witticisms of Crassus against, 285, 
286 ; Cicero's conference with, on emi- 
nent orators, 402, et seq. ; remarks on, 
438, 451, 490; lamentations of Cicero 
at his political difficulties, 504; his di- 
versified talents, 504, 505. 
Buffoon, what so ridiculous as a, 294. 

CiEciLius, the writer of comedies, 231, 
et n. 

Caecilius, L. his character, 24. 

Caelius, C. remarks on, 448. 

CcElius, L. an elegant writer, 430. 

Cselius, M. high character of, 484. 

Caepio, Q, the orator, 467 ; his trial and 
banishment, 276, etn.; remarks on, 439. 

Caepios, the two, judgment and eloquence 
of, 428. 

Caesa, meaning of, 286 n. 

Caesar, C. the senator, 39. 

Caesar, Julius, his political ohjects, 2; 
his contests, 21; brings in the Agrarian 
law, 21; the province of Cisalpine Gaul 
and lUyricum assigned to him, 22 ; Ci- 
cero's praises of, 57, 58 ; Cicero receives 
a flattering letter from, 60, 61 ; his Bri- 
tish expedition, 65 ; his comments on 
Cicero's verses noticed, 65 ; his regard 
for the Ciceros, 69 ; losses sustained 
by, 72; death of his daughter Julia, 
72 n. ; writes from Britain to Cicero, 
75 ; his good^vill towards Cicero, 82 ; 
state of parties on his death, 90 ; re- 
marks on, 224, 225, 476, 478; his elo- 
quence, 477 ; added all the various 
ornaments of elocution, 480. 

Caesius, an officer of Q.Cicero, 8, 23, &7, 

Caespasius, C. and L. remarks on, 474. 

Caesulanus, remarks on, 438. 

Caius, a common praenomen among the 
Romans ; see passim. 

Calamis, the Greek sculptor, 420. 

Calidianus, C. C. remarks on, 474. 

Calidius, the advocate of Gabinius, 75 , 
high character of, 484 485. 

Callisthenes, the Olynthian writer, 59, 
ef n. ; the historian, 2.36. 

Calpumius, Piso, tlie consul, 22. 

Calventius, M. his speech noticed, 70. 

Calvinus, punning anecdote of, 293, et n.; 
notices of, 438. 



Calvus, punning on the word, 294. 

Calvus, C. L. high character of, 487, 488. 

Campania, lands in, 47. 

Canachus, the Greek sculptor, 420. 

Candavia, near Macedonia, 110. 

Caninius, 42. 

Canius, C. witty ingenuit}^ of, 305. 

Canutius, remarks on, 461. 

Caunians, prefer paying taxes to the Ro- 
mans instead of the Rhodians, 16. 

Capitation tax, difficulty of collecting at 
Rome, 135. 

Capito, L. 72. 

Capitol, design and beauty of the, 385. 

Capitolihe College expels Marcus Furius 
Flaccus, 47, et n. 

Carbo, Caius, the orator, 44, 181, 428: re- 
marks on, 430, 466, 493 ; death of, 334. 

Carbo, Cn. the consul, 153, et n. ; an 
orator, 467. 

Cameades, the orator and philosopher, 
155, 264, 266. 

Carvilius, S. punning anecdote of, 293. 

Casca, the conspirator, 112. 

Cascellius, M. 24. 

Cassius, the friend of Q. Cicero, 27, 40; 
his difficulties on the death of Caesar, 
90 ; holds Syria, 93 ; his military suc- 
cess, 96, 97. 

Cassius, Lucius, eloquence of, 428. 

Catienus, Titus, his character, 24, 25. 

Catiline, conspiracy of, 112, et n. 

Cato, C. the senator, 39, 4*2, 44; speech 
of, 50 ; nephew of Africanus, 431. 

Cato, Marcus, opposes the Agrarian law, 
21; his life endangered, 29; inveighs 
against Pompey, 43, 44; sale of his 
gladiators and matadors, 49; repu- 
diated by the consuls, 53 ; his influen- 
tial position, 64 ; notices of, 206, 235, 
420, 467 ; his definition of an orator, 
244 n.; saying of, 302; his wit, 304; 
his great acquirements, 370; speeches 
of, 418, 426; a great orator, 419; his 
contemporary orators, 422. 

Catulus, Q. 71, 224, 467 ; his jest on Phi- 
lippus, 296; his death, 334; remarks 
on, 438, 479. 

Causes in law, on the management and 
conducting of, 248 — 254 ; inquiry into 
the nature of, 257 ; two species of 
ignorantly stated, 258; arguments to 
he drawn from, 268 ; the points of to be 
pleaded, 309, 311; mode of conduct- 
ing, 462. 

Cavillatio, meaning of the word, 283, n. 

Censorian laws, 17, etn. 

Censorinus, the friend of Q.Cicero, 27; 
remarks on, 472. 

Censuring, rules for, 325. 

Centumviri, a body of inferior judices, 
187; their decisions. 188, 189, 190. 

Cethegus, M. C, eloquence of, 416; 
notices of, 417, 418. 

Cethegus, P. remarks on, 452. 

Chaerippus, an officer of Q. Cicero's, 8. 



510 



INDEX. 



Character, foundations for dignity of, 
10. 

Charges, various kinds of, 250, et seg. 

Charisius, notice of, 4b9, 

Charmadas, of Athens, 155, 156, 328; 
his speeches, 164 — 166. 

Chersonese, Roman armies in the, 110. 

Children, on disinheriting, 188, et n. 

Chiio, notice of, 67. 

Chors, meaning of, 299, n. 

Chrysippus, the philosopher, 80, 83, 156. 

CiCEKo, Marcus Tully, letters of, to 
his brother Quintus, 1 — 89; the occa- 
sions on which they were written, 1, 
21, 30, 38, 52, 55, 66] his political 
position, 29; his numerous friends, 
29 ; his impeachment threatened by 
Clodius, 29, 30; letter of, written 
while in exile at Thessalonica, 30 ; his 
lamentations while in exile, 30, et seq., 
35 ; his letter to Atticus, 30, 31, et n.; 
his aifection for his brother, 31, «. ; 
commends his children to the care of 
his brother, 35 ; causes of his self- 
excitement, 36; the friends who are 
desirous of saving him, 3() ; had not 
been formally banished, thouj,^h his 
house and villa had been seized, 38; 
recalled from exile, and recompense 
made for his losses, 38 ; his account 
of the proceedings in the senate-house, 
39; his speech in the senate, 40; 
mentions the two yoimger Ciceros, 60; 
attacks Gabinius, 76 ; his numerous 
engagements, 71; defends Gabinius, 
78, 79; his opinion of his own versi 
fication, 80 ; his works on the best 
form of government, 81 ; his ideas on 
writing poetry, 82, 85; vexations to 
which he is exposed, 82, 83 ; his letters 
Vo Brutus, 90 — 135; with introductory 
remarks, 90; his difficulties after the 
death of Caesar, 90, 91; his son com- 
mended by Brutus., 93; his philippics, 
93; his son, in military command un- 
der Brutus, 108, 109; opposes Antony, 
124; the advice of Brutus to, as to the 
power of Octavius and Antony, 129 — 
133; his epistle to Octavius, 136; his 
portraiture of the times, addressed to 
Octavius, 136 — 111; his Dialogues on 
the " Character of the Ora or," 142, 
et seg. ; course of municipal honours 
through which he passed, 143, et n. ; 
the troubles in which he was at times 
engaged, 143; jest of, 300; his arrival 
at Rhodes, 402; his conference with 
Brutus and Pomponius on eminent 
orators, 404, et seq. ; his literary and 
political career, 497, et seq. ; the suc- 
cessor of Hortensius, 501. 

Cicero, Quintus, letters of his brother 
Marcus addressed to, 1, et seq. ; occa- 
sions on which they were written, see 
ante; his command in Asia extended 
to a third year, 1; advantages of his 



position, 4; invested with high mni- 
tary authority, 5; his integrity, 6; 
everywhere admired for his virtues, 6; 
his lieutenants in Asia, 6; advice as 
to his duties, 7, 8; beneficial results of 
his wise government, 12, 13; advised to 
persevere in his good government, 15 ; 
his political virtues, 17; advised to 
regulate his temper, 18, 19; general 
advice to, 20; character of his asso- 
ciates, 23 — 25; hints on the selection 
of letters written to him, 26 ; reproved 
respecting his letters on the disposition 
of property, 26; his brother's com- 
plaints against his government of 
Asia Minor, 30 ; quits his government, 
and hastens to Rome, where his 
enemies were preparing to impeach 
him, 30, etn.; his 'brother's lamenta- 
tions, 30, 31 ; appointed one of Pom- 
pey's commissioners in Sardinia, 41, 
et n. ; goes to Gaul as one of Caesar's 
lieutenants, 55 ; a resident of Britain, 
6b, 71; his houses and villas, 66, 67, 
69, 71 ; his letters praised by his 
brother, 73; his rural matters, 77; 
education of his son, 78, 89; the Dia- 
logues on Oratory, written at the 
request of, 142. 

Cincian law, notices of the, 307, n. 

Cincius, 47, 68; repartee of, 306. 

Circumluvions, law of, 187, et n. 

Circumstances, arguments to be drawn 
from, 268. 

Circumveniri, punning on the word, 294, 
et n. 

Citae, the legal meaning, 210, n. 

Cities, restoration of, in Asia Minor, 12. 

Civil affairs, chief qualification for giving 
counsel in, 321. 

Civil law, on the proper understanding 
of the, 195, et seq.; must be thoroughly 
studied by the orator, 182, 184; con- 
fusion arising from the ignorance 
of, 185, 186; delight in acquiring the 
knowledge of it, 194, 195, et seq. ; 
changes in the, 196, et n. ; the know- 
ledge of, not always necessary in ora- 
tory, 212, 214, etseq. 

Civili, explanation of, 158 n. 

Claudicat, punning on the word, 293. 

Claudius, A. eloquence of, 415, 431.; 
notices of, 482. 

Claudii, 189. 

Cleon, the orator, 409. 

Clisthenes, oratory of, 409. 

Clitomachus, 155. 

Clodius, C. notices of, 448. 

Clodius, L. tribune of the people, 2 ; the 
friend of Cicero, 91. 

Clodius, Publius, threatens the impeach- 
ment of Cicero, 29, 30; his acts of 
despotism and cruelty, 39, 40 ; his 
speech in the senate, 40; obtains the 
tribuneship through the interest of 
Caesar< &{> '- his various measures, 30 ; 



INDEX. 



511 



his bitterness, 86 ; his contests in the 
senate, 43, 44; his wish to obtain an 
embassy, 52, et n. ; his letter to Caesar 
noticed, 70. 

Coelius, S. impeachment and trial of, 
50, 58. 

Co-heirs, Roman law of, 210. 

Collocation of words, 382. 

Colons, minute sentences, 447. 

Comitia, holding of the, 64, 58; brought 
to an interregnum, 86. 

Commagene, king of, 56. 

Common-places to be fixed in the me- 
mory, 269. 

Common things, eloquence of, 234. 

Comparative, two sorts of questions re- 
garding the, 365. 

Comparison, a jest may be derived from, 
300. 

Composition of words, 382. 

Confidence, in whom it should be placed, 
8. 

Consequential, questions connected with 
the, 365. 

Consolation must be treated with elo- 
quence, 234. 

Consuls, alienated from the cause of 
Cicero, 36; their absolute power, 53. 

Consulship, contests for the, 63, et n. ; 
candidates for the, impeached for 
bribery, IQt, 77; Messala elected to 
the, 88. 

Contested causes, difficulties of, 240. 

Contraries, arguments to be drawn from, 
268. 

Copiousness of matter produces copious- 
ness of language, 367. 

Coponius, M. 190, 260. 

Corax, 166; jests on the name, 354. 

Corculum, a surname of Scipio Xasica, 
422, et n. 

Coriolanus, exile and death of, 412. 

Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, 
463. 

Cornelius, C. the informer, 44. 

Cornelius, P. anecdote of, 301. 

Corruption, decree of the senate on the 
subject of, 48 ; prevalence of, at Rome, 
63, 64. 

Coruncanius, T. wisdom of, 370 ; his 
eloquence, 415. 

Costume of speech, 178. 

Cotta, C. A. one of the personages of 
Cicero's Dialogues, 142, 149, 150, et 
seq.; expelled from office, 334; his 
faults of pronunciation, 344. 

Cotta, L. a skilful speaker, 423 ; re- 
marks on, 440, 460, 479. 

Countenance, its importance in oratory, 
398, 399. 

Country, love of, 195. 

Crassipes^ the son-in-law of Cicero, 46, 
47. 

Crassus, Justinianus, the friend of Cicero, 
86. 

Crassus, Lucius L. one of the orators of 



Cicero's Dialogues, 142, 149, et seq. , 
his praises of oratory, 150 ; quaestor 
in Asia, 155, et n. ; his oratorical 
accomplishments, 254 ; his witticisms 
against Brutus, 285, 286 ; jesting of, 
299 ; witty sarcasm of, 304 ; his inge- 
nious mode of examination, 306 ; his 
varied talents, 329, 330, 446 ; anecdote 
of, 336 ; his general views of eloquence, 
337, et seq. ; his great skill as an orator, 
442 ; his skDful pleading, 457 ; his 
oration in defence of Curius, 478. 

Crassus, Marcus, the praetor, 184; his 
great acquirements, 471 ; his political 
power, 2 ; consulship of, 52, 

Crassus, P. 186, etn.; 211 ; wisdom of, 
370; an orator of great merit, 428; 
notices of, 429; his high character, 
487. 

Crebrius, notices of, 83. 

Criminal matters, modes of conducting, 
250. 

Critias, writings of, 246, etn.] his learning 
and eloquence, 371, 409. 

Critolaus, the philosopher, 264, 265. 

Ctesiphon, 395, 396. 

Culleo, auction of his property, 41. 

Curio, C. the orator, 43, 44, 248, 432 ; his 
genius, 435, 436 ; the third best orator 
of his age, 463 ; his want of memory, 
465 ; family of, 464 ; remarks on, 464, 
465 ; his high character, 487. 

Curius, M. the friend of Cicero, 36, 190, 
210, 284; eloquence of,416. 

Curtius, a candidate for the tribuneship, 
70. 

Cychereus, letter of, noticed, 110. 

Cynics, Antisthenes the founder of, 349. 

Cyrenaic philosophy, Aristippus the 
founder of, 349. 

Cyrus, the architect, 41. 

" Cyrus," of Xenophon, its objects, 12. 

Decius, p. style of, 432. 

Definition, meaning of the term, 193; 
how far useful, 251 ; the various dis- 
putes on, 365. 

Deliberations in cases of law, 250. 

Delivery, one of the essentials of an 
oration, 178 n.; manner of, the sole 
power in oratory, 395 ; Demosthenes' 
opinion of, 395 ; the voice materially 
contributes to its effectiveness, 3L-9. 

Demades, the orator, 410. 

Demochares, the Greek writer, 247 ; 
notices of, 489. 

Democritus, the philosopher, 156 ; his 
followers, 153. 

Demosthenes, possessed of the utmost 
energy of eloquence, 165 ; his ef- 
forts to acquire perfection, 218; his 
opinion of the chief requisite of elo- 
quence, 395 ; a complete orator, 410 ; 
style of, 435. 

^^laXeKTiKt], the art taught by Diogenes, 
265. 



c 



512 



INDEX. 



Diligence, requisite for finding argu- 
ment, 262 ; to be particularly culti- 
vated, 262. 

Dinarchus, the orator, 410. 

Diogenes, the philosopher, 264, 265. 

Dion of Syracuse, learning of, 371. 

Dionysius, 236 ; a great intriguer, 59. 

Dionysopolis, the people of, 24. 

Diophanes, the eloquent Grecian, 430. 

Diphilus, 66, 67. 

Disposition, one of the parts of an 
oration, 178 w. 

Disputation, manner of, among the 
Greeks, 164, et seq., 169; no kinds of, 
should be foreign to the orator, 368. 

Dissimilarity, arguments to be drawn 
from, 268. 

Dissimulation, joking slm.ilar to a sort 
of, 302. 

Distortion of features, unworthy of an 
orator, 295. 

Di visores, explanation of the term, 297 n. 

Dolabella, kills Trebonius, 92; his career 
in Asia, 93 ; his oppressions, 97 ; de- 
feated and slain, 110 ; reports respect- 
ing, 1)0. 

Domitius Calvinus, 79. 

Domitius, Cnaeus, the praetor, 29, 58 ; 
consulship of, 55, 58, 63 ; his coalition 
with Memmius, 63 w. ; befriended by 
Cicero, 72 ; impeached for bribery, 76, 
77; commended by Brutus, 109; jest 
of Crassus against, 291 w. ; remarks 
on, 448. 

Domitius, L. notices of, 482. 

Doubt, matters admitting of, how to be 
decided, 261. 

Drusus, 142, 149 ; acquitted of prevari- 
cation, 64 ; his complaints against 
Philippus, 332. 

Drusus, M. and C. the orators, 432, 467. 

Duodecim Scriptis, the game so called, 
203 n. 

Dyrrhachium, 93, 96. 



Ea Trao-a?, quoted by Cicero. 54. 

Echion, the Greek painter, 420. 

Egilius, witty repartee of, 304. 

El 6' ev aia eCncra?,'quoted by Cicero, 54. 

Elocution necessary in oratory, 342. 

Eloquence, diflaculty of acquiring the 
art of, .147 ; the piaises of Crassus in 
favour of, 150, 151 ; Scsevola's opinions 
on, opposed to those of Crassus, 152 ; 
the early Romans destitute of, 152; 
ancient laws, customs, &c. not esta- 
blished by, 153; saying of Socrates 
on, 159 : connected with oratory, 
163; consists in the art of speak- 
ing well, 164; of the Academicians, 
164, et seq. ; different from good 
speaking, 167 ; every branch of know- 
ledge necessary to, 222 ; advantage 
of, 229 ; whether it is desirable ? 
232; of common things, 234; power of, 



mostly the same, 321 ; one and the 
same, in whatever regions of debate 
engaged, 338, 339; the different kinds 
of, 339, et seq. ; the distinguishing 
title of, 346; power of, denominated 
wisdom, 347; the real power of, 353; 
various requisites for, 359, 391, etseq.; 
the greatest glory of, to exaggerate by 
embellishment, 362 ; wonderful love 
of, in Greece, 408; the house of .Iso- 
crates the school of, 409 ; the age when 
it flourished, 410, etseq. ; the attendant 
of peace, &c. 413 ; what is the perfect 
character of, 459. See Oratory and 
Speaking. 

Embassies, nature of, explained, 52. 

Embellishment, one of the parts of an 
oration, 178 w. 

Emotions of the mind, 272, et seq. ; ex- 
pressed on the countenance, 396 ; and 
by gestures, 398. 

Empedoclea of Sallust, 56. 

Empedocles, 203. 

Ennius, 181; an axiom of, 284; his "An- 
nals," 416; remarks on, 417; notices 
of, 420, 421 ; death of, 422. 

Entreaty, sometimes very advantageous, 
322. 

Epaminondas, talents of, 372 ; erudition 
of, 414. 

Ephorus, the historian, 236. 

Equity, sometimes the object of oratory, 
178; on questions of, 260. 

Eretrians, sect of, 349. 

Evidence, to be given with great exact- 
ness, 233. 

Exhortation must be treated with elo- 
quence, 234, 

Exile, letter written by Cicero in, 30; 
miseries of enumerated, 32 ; causes 
of, 36. 

Exordium of a speech, 316 — 318. 

Expectation, jokes contrary to, 206. 

Expediency, how to be treated in ora- 
tory, 311. 

Eyes, management of the, in oratory , 399. 



Fabius, C. 25. 

Fabius Maximus, jest on, 302. 

Fabius, S. the orator, 423. 

Fabricius, the friend of Cicero, 36. 

Fabricius, C. witticism of, 301; eloquence 
of, 415. 

Facetiousness, good effect of, 322. 

Facts, questions on the nature of, in- 
numerable and intricate, 259 ; from the 
facts themselves, very few and clear, 
259 ; statement of, in a speech, 319. 

Fadius, the friend of Cicero, 36. 

Fannii, Caii, the orators, 429. 

Fannius, the annalist, 301. 

Farmers of the revenue, 4; disputes 
among the, 5 ; on the just manage- 
ment of, 15, 16; wrongs committed by 
the, 16; released from some of the 



INDEX. 



'513 



conditions of their contract, 22 ; their 
extortions in Syria, 50, et n. 

Favonius, 43. 

Fear, feelings of, 280 ; assumes a parti- 
cular tone of voice, 397. 

Feelings to be worked on, 280. 

Felix, will of, left unsigned, 89. 

Festivals of Rome in December, 39, et n. 

Fimbria, C. notices of, 245, 438, 471. 

Flaccus, M. F. a tolerable orator, 431, 432. 

Flaminius, T. an accurate speaker, 432; 
remarks on, 479. 

Flavins, his disputed estate referred to 
Cicero, 110. 

Flavins, Cn. 192. 

Flavins, L. his interview with Cicero, 
2Q, 27. 

Flood of waters at Rome, 84. 

Folly, witty, mode of exposing, 304. 

Formiae in Campania, 9. 

Fortune not to be relied on so much as 
virtue and moderation, 4. 

Forum, affairs of the, T6. 

Friendship, professions of, to be guard- 
ed against, 8; especially among the 
Greeks, 9. 

Fufidius, 67 ; a tolerable pleader, 433. 

Fufius, L. 190, 345; remarks on, 467. 

Fulvius, the orator, 423. 

Fundanus, C. 26. 

Furius, L. 264. 

Furius, M. expelled from the Capitoline 
College, 47. 

Fusius, 245. 

Gabinian law, 58. 

Gabinius, 29; proconsul of Syria, 51, et 
n.; gojt^emor of Syria, 58; prosecuted 
by different parties, 71, 75, 76 ; his un- 
popularity, 74; his conduct, 75; im- 
peached for bribery, 77, 78 ; detested 
by all, 78; his acquittal, 78; Cicero 
not an advocate, but simply a witness 
respecting him, 87. 

Galba, C. notices of, 437. 

Galba, S. 153, 21 1; his tragic speech, 206 ; 
repartee of, 299 ; the best speaker of 
his age, 423 ; his successful pleadings, 
425; his energetic defence against 
Libo, 426; inferiority of his written 
compositions, 427; remarks on, 492. 

Gallus, C. A. an able speaker, 445. 

Games, excessive taxation for support- 
ing the, 13, etn. 

Gaul, commotions in, 2. 

Gauls, auxiliary forces from the, 119. 

Gellius, 39, 430; remarks on, 421. 

General, what he is, 200, 201. 

Genius, the great end of speaking, 171 ; 
■requisite for finding argument, 262. 

Gesture, appropriate, ought to attend the 
emotions of the mind, 398. 

Glabrio, notices of, 39, 473. 

Glaucia, repartee of, 299: remarks on, 
467. 

Glory of a great name, 20. 



Glycon, the physician of Pansa, 109. . 

Good breeding essential to the orator, 161. 

Gorgias, the Leontine, 169 ; his universal 
knowledge, 368 ; a rhetorician, 409 ; an 
essayist, 413. 

Gorgonius, C. remarks on, 453. 

Government, precepts on the just admi- 
nistration of, 11, 12; beneficial results 
of, under Q. Cicero, 12; the sort of wis- 
dom applied to, 164; nature of, should 
be known to the orator, 182. 

Gracchus, the augur, 41. 

Gracchus, Caius, his pitchpipe for regu- 
lating the voice, 400 ; genius of, 436. 

Gracchus, T. the Roman orator, 201, 422, 
428; his effective delivery, 396; his 
death, 430. 

Grammarians, number of, who have ex- 
celled, 145. 

Granius, witticisms of, 292, 296, 305; 
anecdote of, 450. 

Gratidianus, M. 189, 449. 

Gratidius, the lieutenant of Q. Cicero, 6. 

Gratidius, M. notices of, 449. 

*' Great Annals," the early records of 
Rome, 234. 

Greece, the studies and arts of, advan- 
tageous, 14; the seven wise men of, 
371 ; her wonderful love of eloquence, 
408 ; orators of, very ancient, 414. 

Greek, on the reading and study of, 236, 
237. 

Greek orators, translations of, 18. 

Greek writers have produced their dif- 
ferent styles in different ages, 246, 247 ; 
their varied abilities, 263. 

Greeks, their friendship to be guarded 
against, 9 ; their right to pay taxes, 
16 ; complaints of the, 23 ; oratory 
of the, 148, 155; their manner of dis- 
putation, 164 et seq., 169; character 
of the, 226; their powers as writers 
of history, 234 ; their manner of teach- 
ing oratory, 242 ; objections to it, 243 ; 
some degree of learning and politeness 
among the, 359. 

Greeks of Asia Minor, 5, et n. 

Greville, punning on the name, 293, 
294 w. 

Gutta, supported by Po'mpey, 86. 

Halicarnassus, in Asia Minor, 12. 

Hand, action of the, in oratory, 398. 

Hannibal, his opinion of Phormio's ora- 
tion on the military art, 241. 

Harmony of words, 382, 383 ; of natural 
things, 384; of sounds, 390. 

Hatred, feelings of, 280. 

Hearers influenced by the different qua- 
lities of a speaker, 271. 

Hegesias, remarks on, 489. 

Hellanicus, the historian, 234. 

Helvetii, frequent inroads of the, 2. 

Hephaestus of Apamea, 24. 

Herctum, the legal meaning, 210, ct n. 

Hercules of Polyctetus, 239. 

L L 



514 



INDEX. 



Herennius, M. remarks on, 448. 

Herillians, sect of, 349. 

Hermias, Cicero's letter respecting, 27. 

Hermippus of Dion5Sopolis, 24. 

Hermodorus the dock-builder, 159. 

Herodotus, eloquence of, 235. 

Herus, the bailiff of Cicero, 66. 

Hierocles, 247. 

Hippias of Elis, his universal knowledge, 
368, 409. 

Hirrus, Cicero sneers at, 86, 88. 

Hirtius the consul, 91 ; slain in battle, 
104. 

History must be studied by the orator, 
182 ; a knowledge of, essential to 
oratory, 217; what are the talents 
requisite for, 234 ; Greek and Latin 
writers of, 234, 235, 236; how far is 
it the business of the orator? 237; the 
general rules of, obvious to common 
sense, 237 ; humorous allusions may 
be drawn from, 300 ; truth of, much 
corrupted, 418. 

Homer, eloquence appreciated by, 411; 
poets existed before his time, 420. 

Honour, how to be treated in oratory, 321 . 

Honours, on the conferring of, 126, 127; 
course of, through which the Romans 
had to pass, 143, et n. ; whether they 
should be sought ? 232. 

Hope, feelings of, 280, 281. 

Hortensius the orator, 401 ; his death, 
402 ; his character, 402, et seq. ; his 
genius, 469; his coevals, 470 ; biogra- 
phical notices of, 494 ; his distin- 
guished qualities, 495, 502, et seq.; 
succeeded by Cicero, 501. 

Hostilius, C. 210; " Cases of," 213. 

House, contest respecting the sale of a, 
189, 190. 

Humanity, to be exhibited to those from 
whom we received it, 14. 

Humour, strokes of, necessary in oratory, 
283, et seq. 

Hypallage, form of, 380. 

Hyperides, the orator, 410. 

Hyps82us, his contest with C. Octavius, 
184, 185, et n. 

Ictus metrici, explained, 385 w. 
Ill-temper, proneness to, 18. 
Imitation, advice respecting, 245 ; the 

orator should be moderate in, 291. 
Impertinent, definition of the word, 225. 
Impossible, on treating the, 321. 
Incidi, explanation of the word, 70. 
Indecency of language to be avoided in 

oratory, 295. 
Indiscretion, various ways in which it 

may be prejudicial to the orator, 311, 

et n. 
Inheritances, formulae for entering on, 

169, p.tn. 
Inquiry, various subjects of, 364. 
Instances, parallel, arguments to be 

drawn from, 263. 



Intestacy, law of, 189. 

Intimacies, caution to be observed in the 
formation of, 10. 

Invention, one of the parts of an oration, 
178 w. 

Invention and arrangement essential to 
oratory, 220. 

Ionia, in Asia Minor, 12. 

Ironical dissimulation sometimes pro- 
duces an agreeable effect, 301. 

Ironical use of words, 299. 

Irony of Socrates, 491. 

Isocrates, the father of eloquence, 223, 
392 ; his house the school of elo- 
quence, 246, 409 ; his mode of teach- 
ing, 383, 410, 461 ; a writer of orations, 
414. 

Italy, formerly called '* Magna Graecia," 
264. 

Jesting, mimicry a species of, 295; the 
various kinds of, 295, et seq. 

Jests, Greek books on, 283 ; the kind that 
excite laughter, 289, 293 ; various sorts 
of, 295, et seq. ; infinite in variety, but 
reducible to a few general heads, 308. 

Jocosity, useful in oratory, 283. 

Jokes, 289; sometimes border on scur- 
rility, 292 ; often lie,in a single word, 
297. See Jests. 

Joking, caution to be observed in, 290. 

Jov, feelings of, 280, 281. 

Julius, C. 224; death of, 324; varied 
talents of, 452. 

Julius, L. death of, 334. 

Junius, T. remarks on, 453. 

Jupiter, a work so called, 52, 53 n. 

Jurisprudence, a knowledge of essential 
to oratory, 217. 

Jus applicationis, 189. 

Jus civile, 196. See Civil Law. 

Jus publicum, the various heads of, 
197 w. 

Juventius, T. remarks on, 452, 

Kindred, law of, 187, et n. 

Knowledge, the liberal departments of, 
linked together in one bond, 337 ; three 
kinds of, 364 ; all the objects of, com- 
prehended by certain distinguished 
individuals, 369, 370. 

Labeo, anoflBcerof Q.Cicero's, 8, 73, 99. 

Laelia, the daughter of C. Laelius, 463 ; 
her sweetness of voice, 344. 

Laelius, C. 201, 264; his light amuse- 
ments, 226; repartee of, 306; a finished 
orator, 423, 424 ; his pleadings, 425 ; 
esteemed the wisest of men, 463. 

Laelius, Decimus, 227. 

Lama, L. M. repartee of, 299. 

Lamia, C. his boldness of speech, 58. 

Lamiae, the, 45. 

Language, purity of, necessary, 342; 
faults of noticed, 343; on the ambi- 
guity of, 345 ; form of, follows the 
nature of our thoughts, 384; agreeable- 



INDEX. 



515 



ness and grace of, 385 ; metrical struc- 
ture of, 385 ; the various figures which 
tend to adorn, 391, et seq. ; fashionable 
delicacy of, 450. 

Larentia, the nurse of Romulus, 125. 

Largius's limb, joke on Memmius re- 
specting, 290, et n. 

Laterium, a country house of Cicero's, 
50; Cicero's description of, 68, 69. 

Latiar, error in the name of, 46. 

Latin, to he spoken with purity, 342. 

Laughter, five things connected with, 
which are subjects of consideration, 
289; sort of jests calculated to excite, 
293, 306. 

Law, severity in its administration ne- 
cessary, 10 ; qualities necessary for, 
11; instances of ignorance of, 185, 
18(5 ; various disputed cases of, 188 — 
192; a knowledge of, necessary to the 
orator, 209 ; case of, discussed be- 
tween Crassus and Galba,210; cases 
in which there can be no dispute, 211 ; 
cases in which the civil law is not 
absolutely necessary, 212, 214, et seq. 
(see Civil Law.) 

Laws must be understood by the orator, 
182 ; difierent kinds of, specified, 187 ; 
of Athens, 208. 

Lawyer, who truly deserves the name ? 
201. 

Learning, advantages of, 356, 357 ; its 
progress in Rome, 358 ; of the Greeks, 
359. 

Legatio libera, meaning of the term, 52. 

Lentulus, Cn. 44, 471, 475. 

Lentulus, L. the orator, his contests in 
the senate, 41, 42; consulship of, 48; 
engages to supply Rome with corn, 
49 TO.; accuses Gahinius, 78; remarks 
on, 423. 

Lentulus, Lucius, son of the flamen, 
71. 

Lentulus, Marcellinus, consulship of, 
38. 

Lentulus, P. the preetor, 29, 201 ; elo- 
quence of, 431 ; remarks on, 440. 

Lentulus, P. and L. notices of, 482. 

Lentulus, Spinther, consulship of, 38. 

Lepidus, M. levity and inconsistency of, 
94, 25 ; folly of, 1 16 ; his children suf- 
ferers by it, 117 ; the fear in which he 
was held, 117 ; his wickedness, 121 ; a 
vacillating man, 123 ; his statue over- 
thrown, 126 ; saying of, 307; witticism 
of, 307 ; remarks on, 492. 

Lepidus and Antony, kingly power trans- 
ferred to, 123, 124, 

Letters, of Cicerto to his brother 
Quintus, 1 — 89 ; to Junius Brutus, 90 
— 135 ; to Octavius, 1 36 (see Cicero) ; 
Cicero complains of their non-arrival, 
84, 85 ; cautions respecting the con- 
veyance of, 85 ; of Junius Brutus to 
Cicero, 92, 100, 106, 108, 109, 117, 128; 
to Atticus, 111; those of Brutus dif- 



ferently arranged in difiererrt editions. 

93, 94 n. 
Lex ^lia Fulvia, 30. 
Lex Licinia Mucia de civibus regendis, 

297. 
Libo, T. the tribune, 426. 
Liciniae, the, 463. 
Licinius, the kidnapper, 25. 
Licinius, the slave of ^Esop, 28. 
Licinius, M. 45, 46. 
Lictor, duties of his office, 8. 
Literature and study the great pleasure 

of Cicero, 87. 
Livius, biographical notices of, 421. 
Locusta, 6b. 

Longilius, the contractor, 48. 
Longinus; 217. 
Love, feelings of, 280. 
Lucilius, C. the satirist, 161, et n. ; a 

man of great learning, 227 ; obscurity 

of a passage in, 295, et n. 
Lucius, a common Latin prsenomen ; 

seep(Z55m. 
Lucretius, poems of, 56. 
Luculli, L. and M. the orators, 467. 
Lucullus, M. the prsetor, 39. 
Lupus, the senator, his speech, 39. 
Lycurgus, 410, 411. 
Lysias, a complete orator, 410, 411; 

notices of, 418. 

Macedonia, 155. 

Macer, C. remarks on, 472. 

Magius, jest respecting, 300; remarks 

on, 452. 
Magnesians, make honourable mention 

of Q. Cicero, 55. 
Mago, the Carthaginian, 214, et n. 
Majesty, crime against, equivalent to 

treason, 74, et n. 
Mains, C. 160. 

Maluginensis, M. S. joke of, 298. 
Mancia, M. satirical jest on, 300. 
Mancinus, C. case of, 191. 
Manilian laws, 213. 

Manilius, M. 201; his universal know- 
ledge, 369; his judgment, 431. 
Manlius, Cn. 255, et n. 
Manucius, 73. 
Manutius, Paul, 100, n.- 
Marcelli, 189. 
Marcellinus, the senator, his speech, 39; 

Cicero's complaint against, 49. 
Marcellus, M. 42, 159; remarks on, 440. 
Marcus, a common prasnomen among 

the Romans ; see passim, 
Marcus, Q. a Roman orator, 423. 
Marius, the friend of Cicero, 54, 55. 
Marius, C. 276. 
Marius, M. the orator, 467. 
Matadors of Cato, 49. 
Mathematics, the numbers who have 

excelled in, 145. 
Maximus, Q. the orator, 431. 
Megarians, sect of, 349. 
Megaristus of Antandros, 24. 

ll2 



516 



INDEX. 



Memmius, 29, 71; his coalition with 
Domitius, 63, et n. ; exposes the coali- 
tion, 72; impeached for bribery, 76^ 
77; his reliance on Caesar, 86; jests 
respecting, 290, 300, 301; his witty 
reproof, 306; remarks on, 475. 

Memmius, C. andL. remarks on, 440. 

Memory, the repository of all things, 
147 ; one of the requisites of an ora- 
tor, 178, «.; to be exercised, 181, 182; 
ait of, 311. 327, 328; Simonides the 
inventor, 325. 326; a great benefit to 
the orator, 326. 

Menecles, of Alabanda, 247. 

Menedemus. of Athens, 164. 

Messala, 34; Cicero's opinion oi, 72, 
86; impeached for bribery, 76, 77; 
made consul, 88; his high character, 
122; remarks on, 475. 

Messala, V. elected consul, 63, et n. 

Messidius, Qfi, 67. 

Metaphor, a brief similitude, 376 ; on the 
use of, 377; brevity sometimes ob- 
tained by, 377, 378; not to be too far- 
fetched, 379; on the connexion of 
several metaphors, 381. 

Metaphorical use of words, 299. 

Metelli, C. and N. remarks on the, 475. 

Metellus, notices of, 201, 301, et w., 439; 
eloquence of, 416, 423. 

Metellus Nepos, consulship of, 38. 

Method, requisite for finding argument, 
262. 

Metonymy, form of, 380. 

Metrical quantities of words or sen- 
tences, 385, 386. 

Metrodorus, 328, 353. 

Military art, Phormio's lecture on the, 
241. 

Milo, the friend of Cicero, 36, 42, 43; 
Cicero complains of his imprudence, 50 ; 
applause awarded to, 71; opposed by 
Pompey, 86; prepares to exhibit games, 
86, 88; censured by Cicero, 88. 

Mimicry, a kind of ludicrous jesting, 
295. 

Misenum, of Campania, 236. 

Mnesarchus, 155, 164. 

Modulation of words, 382, 383. 

Mole, the rhetorician, 496, 

Money, charges of extortion, 250; em- 
bezzlement of, 250. 

"Motus," meaning of, 171. 

Mucia, sister of Metellus, 1. 

Muciae, the, 463. 

Mucius, P. 201, 211, 234. 

Mucins, Q. 149, 197. 

Mummius, L. and S. the PbOman orators, 
427. 

Murena, P. remarks on, 472. 

Music, the numbers who have excelled 
in, 145. 

Myron, the Greek sculptor, 420. 

Mysia, in Asia Minor, 12. 

Mysians, mode of punishing two of 
them, 24. 



NiEvius, punning on the name, 294 

%\Titings of, 417. 
Narration, contained in a speech, 318; 

difficulties of, 300. 
Nasica, witty repartees of, 298, 303, 304. 
Naso, L. O. 26. 
Nassenius, C. recommended by Cicero, 

101. 
Nature, harmony and beauty of, 384. 
Nature and genius, the great end of 

speaking, 171. 
Naucrates, writings of, 247, et n. 
Nerius, Cn. the informer, 44. 
Nero,' C. C. old saying of, 293. 
Nerva, C. L. 438. 
Nervii, of Gaul, 85. 
Nicander, of Colophon, 161, et n. 
Nicephorus, the bailiff of Q. Cicero, 68. 
Nicias of Smyrna, 24. 
Nicomaclius, the Greek painter, 420. 
Nigidius, the praetor, 29. 
Nobilior, punning alteration of the word, 

296, et n. 
Norbanus, C. the tribune, 255, et w., 273, 

276, n., 277. 
Numa Pompilius, 152, 264. 
Numerius Furius, notices of, 357. 
Nummius, punning on his name, 297. 
Nuncupative wills, 206, et n. 
Nymphon of Colophon, 24. 

Obscurity, to be avoided in metaphor, 
380. 

Octavianus, or Octavius, his difficulties 
on the death of Caesar, 90, 91 ; lauded 
by Cicero, 98, 124; Brutus's opinion 
of, 113, 114; the friend of Cicero, 120; 
honours proposed to, 125 ; Brutus 
refuses to solicit clemency from, or to 
allow him regal authority, 128—133; 
his obligations to Cicero, 134; Cicero's 
epistle to, on his character and con- 
duct, 136 — 141 ; this epistle considered 
spurious, 136 w. ; his tyranny and op- 
pression, 139, 140. 

Octavius, Caius, the associate of Q. 
Cicero, 25. 

Octavius Cn. his wise administration, 
11 ; his contest with Hypsaeus, 184, 
185, ct n. ; eloquence of, 451. 

Octavius, M. and Cn. the orators, 427, 
467. 

Oppius, the confidential friend of Caesar, 
69, 70, 12, 73. 

Oration, its eflfects when adorned and 
polished, 151 ; the different methods 
of dividing it, 242; difficulties attend- 
ing it, 243. 

Orations, written ones often inferior to 
those spoken, 427. 

Orator, The, Cicero's Dialogues on his 
character, 142, et seq. ; when and why 
composed, 142; the different persons 
introduced, 142 ; must obtain the 
knowledge of everything important, 
148 ; to be accomplished in every sub- 



INDEX. 



617 



ject of conversation and learning, 152 ; 
can speak well on every subject, 156 ; 
his power consists in exciting the 
feelings, 157 ; he is an orator who can 
define his power, 159; ethical philo- 
sophy may be mastered by, 161 ; good 
breeding essential to him. 161 j nature 
and genius his great aids, 171 ; defini- 
tions of the complete orator, 172, 173, 
et seq. ; condemned for the' least imper- 
fection, 174, 175; writing his best 
modeller and teacher, IbO; his general 
studies, 181, 182; the various depart- 
ments of knowledge with which he 
should be familiar, 182 ; a knowledge 
of civil law absolutely necessary, 184, 
et seq. ; an acquaintance with the 
arts and sciences essential, 193; one 
who can use appropriate words and 
thoughts, 202 ; must study philosophy, 
204 ; the various objects he ought to 
embrace, 204, 205 ; one who can use 
the art of persuasion, 218; invention 
and arrangement essential, 220, etseq.; 
no excellence superior to that of a con- 
summate orator, 229, 230 ; how far 
history is his business, 237 ; the kinds 
of subjects on which he may speak, 
238, 239; Cato defines him as " vir 
bonus dicendi peritus," 244 n. ; his 
excitement of the passions, 280, 281 ; 
his jocosity and wit, 283; should be 
moderate in imitation, 291 ; distortion 
of features unworthy of the, 295 ; his 
various kinds of indiscretion, 311, ein.; 
his proper mode of arranging facts and 
arguments, 313, et seq.; a popular 
assembly his most enlarged scene, 
321, 322; his use of panegyric, 323— 
325 ; memory greatly beneficial to, 326 ; 
should speak with perspicuity and 
gracefulness, 342 ; compared with the 
philosopher, 371, 372 ; first made his 
appearance in Athens, 408; the prin- 
cipal qualities required, 426 ; three 
things which he should be able to 
effect, 454. 

Orator and poet nearly allied, 161. 

Orators, opinions of the Academicians 
on, 164, et seq. ; a wide distinction 
between the accomplishments and 
natural abilities of, 339 ; enumeration 
of, 339 ; of antiquity, 347, 348 ; Cicero's 
remarks on, 402, et seq. ; the early 
ones of Athens, 409 ; the Rhodian and 
Asiatic, 414 ; different styles of, 435 ; 
two classes of good ones, 460; of the 
Attic style, 488—490. 

Orators of Greece, very ancient, 414. 

Orators of Rome, the early ones, 415, et 
seq.; their age and merits, 435, et seq ; 
contemporary ones, 453 ; the leading 
ones, 462 ; their treatment, 496, 497. 

Oratory, on the general study of, 150; 
business and art of, to be divided into 
five parts, 178 ; writing the best mo- 



deller and teacher of, 180; may exist 
without philosophy, 208 ; legal know- 
ledge necessary to, 209 ; a perfect 
mastery over all the arts not necessary 
in, 215, 216; strokes of wit and hu- 
mour useful in, 283, et seq. ; joking in 
to be cautiously practised, 290 ; on the 
use of the ridiculous in, 292, 294; 
sorts of jests calculated to excite 
laughter, 293, 294 ; punning in, 292— 
294 ; peculiar habits to be avoided, 
295 ; various kinds of jesting used in, 
295, et seq. ; talents applicable to, 310, 
311; ancient professors of, 368; me- 
trical harmony to be observed in, 385, 
386 ; the most illiterate are capable of 
judging of, 390 ; the various requisites 
of, 391, et seq. ; considerations of what 
is the most becoming, 395 ; importance 
of delivery, 395 ; almost peculiar to 
Athens, 414; on the effects of, 455, 
456. See Eloquence and Speaking. 

Orbius, P. remarks on, 452. 

Oresta, L. and C. A. the Roman orators, 
427. 

Orfius, M. a Roman knight, commended 
by Cicero, 60. 

"Origines," a work written by Marcus 
Cato, 206. 

*OpOav rav vavv, a Greek proverb, 27. 

Osella, remarks on, 452. 



Paconius, the Mysian, 10. 

Pacuvius, passage from the play of, 264. 

Pcean axid. Munio, explanation of, 216 n. 

Paeonius, the rhetorician, 78. 

Painters of Greece, 420. 

I'ainting, a single art, though possessing 
different styles, 339. 

Palicanus, the orator, 467. 

Pamphilus, notices of, 354, et n. 

Panegyric, the ornaments and delivery 
of, 232, 233 ; use of, in oratory, 322— 
325. 

Pansa, the consul, 91 ; his military posi- 
tion, 96; death of, 104; remarks on 
his death, 109 ; his energy in the 
senate, 119. 

Papirius, L. eloquence of, 449. 

Parallel cases, arguments to be drawn 
from, 269. 

Particulars, arguments to be drawn fri m, 
267. 

Parties, political, of Rome, 90, 92. 

Passion, to be restrained, 18, 19. 

Passions, the power of the orator con- 
sists in exciting them, 157; the art of 
influencing the. 204 ; moving of the, 
272, et seq.; to be called into action, 
280, et seq. ; excitement of the, an 
essential part of oratory, 280, 281. 

Patro, the Epicurean, 28. 

Patroni causarum, 196 n. 

Paulus, L. the orator, 423. 

Pennus, M. the orator, 432. 



518 



INDEX. 



Percussions, mettlcal, 385, et n. 
Pericles, the best orator in Athens, 202; 
his compositions 246, et n. ; his elo- 
quence, 371, 408, 409 ; how it was 
acquired, 412, 413. 
Period, the largest compass of a, 385. 
Periods, conclusions of, to be carefully- 
studied, 389. 

Peripatetics, the, 154; founded by Aris- 
totle, 349; discipline of the, 435 

Persius, 227; a man of letters, 429. 

Persuasion, the business of an orator, 
177; most useful to him, 218; the 
chief object to be effected, 417. 

Phaethon, 36. 

Phalereus, the orator, 411. 
Phericydes, the historian, 234. 

Philippics of Cicero, 93. 

Philippus, the consul, 40, 149; the step- 
father of Octavius, 114. 

Philippus, L. orations of, 331, 332; notices 
of, 448, 454 ; his varied talents, 450, 
451. 

Philippus, M. consulship of, 38. 

Philistus, the Sicilian writer, 59, et n. 

Philistus, the historian, 236 ; writings of, 
247, et n. 

Philo, the architect, 159 ; the philosopher 
of Athens, 363, 49G. 

Philc^onus, the freedman, 32. 

Philolaus, acquirements of, 372. 

Philosopher, who deserves the appella- 
tion, 201; compared with the orator, 
372, 373. 

Philosophers, various sorts of, 349 ; of 
Athens, 363; their teaching, 435. 

Philosophy, the parent of all the arts, 
145 ; ethical philosophy may be mas- 
tered by the orator, 161 ; the wisdom 
derived from, 164, 165 ; must be studied 
by the orator, 204, 205 ; never despised 
by the Romans, 264; knowledge in 
the arts and sciences so denominated, 
348; principles of, 354; moral philo- 
sophy derived its birth from Socrates, 
409. 

Philotimus, 68. 

Philoxenus, ^(j. 

Philus, L. F. a correct speaker, 431. 

Phormio, the peripatetic, Hannibal's 
opinion of, 241. 

3>i'(7tKot, natural philosophers, 203. 

P;ctor, the historian, 235. 

Pilus, the courier, 98. 99. 

Pinarius, T. Cicero's respect for, 74; 
jest on. 300. 

Pisistratus, learning of, 371 ; oratory of, 
409, 411. 

Piso, the historian, 235. 

Piso, C. high character of, 484. 

Piso, L. the tribune, 431 ; a professed 
pleader, 431. 

Piso., M. the peripatetic Staseas, 169; 
his great erudition, 472 ; notices of, 
472, 473. 

Pity, feelings of, 280, 281. 



Plancius, the senator, a friend of Cicero's, 
40 ; Cicero's speech prepared for, 70. 

Plancus, L. his military arrangements, 
94,95; his forces of, 119; honours 
proposed to, 126. 

Plato, the chief of all genius and learn- 
ing, 14; a citizen of Sardis, 28; the 
Gorgias of, 155; saying of, 337; the 
ancient school of, 349 ; the instructor 
of Dion, 371; statue of, 408; richness 
of his style, 435 ; anecdote of, 456. 

Plautus, death of, 417. 

Plays on ambiguous words extremely 
ingenious, 295. 

Pleading, impassioned manner of, 279; the 
strong ,'points of a cause to be taken, 
309 ; manner of, to be adopted, 310. 

Pleasure assumes a particular tone of 
the voice, 398. 

Poem, epic, written by Cicero, 89. 

Poet, must possess ardour of imagina- 
tion, 275. 

Poetry, Cicero's ideas on writing, 82, 85. 

Poets, the small number who have risen 
to eminence, 14(i ; must be studied 
by the orator, 182; have the nearest 
affinity to orators, 161, 339. 

Poisoning, charges of, 250. 

Political treatises, preparing by Cicero, 
59. 

Pollio, his history of the civil wars, 1. 

Polycletus, the Greek sculptor, 239, 
420. 

Polygnotus, the Greek painter, 420. 

Ponipeius, C. remarks on, 473. 

Pompeius, C. and S. remarks on, 451. 

Pompeius, Q. the orator, 428 ; remarks 
on, 473. 

Pompeius, S. the philosopher, 160, 353. 

Pompey, the great, 1, 2; his defection 
from Cicero, 36 ; his contests in the 
senate, 42, et neq. ; large amount of 
money voted to, 47 ; his uni.opularity, 
50 ; consulship of, 52 ; Cicero's inter- 
views with, 52, 55 ; defends Gabinius, 
78, 79 ; patronage of, 86. 

Pompey and Crassus, second consulship 
of, 142. 

Pompilius, M. a man of abilities, 416. 

Pomponia, 48, 69. 

Pomponius the orator. 34, 345 ; marriage 
of, 45 ; his conference with Cicero on 
eminent orators, 404. See Atticus. 

Pomptiiiius, triumph of, 81. 

Pontidius, P. notices of. 475. 

Popilia, 232. 

Popilius, P. and C. the Roman orators, 
427. 

Popular Assembly, the most enlarged 
scene of action for an orator, 321, 322. 

Porcia, the mother ^f young Cicero, 89. 

Porcina, M. 153. 

Portia, 115. 

Postumius, T. remarks on, 482. 

Power and wisdom, on the union of, ir 
political government, 14. 



INDEX. 



519 



** Praeco actionum," an instructor of 
forms, 209, et n. 

Praetexta, Cicero's ridicule of the, 56. 

Praetors, ineffectiveness of tlie, 3 ; at- 
tendants on the, 7; the friends of 
Cicero, 29 ; list of in the senate, 39. 

Pragmatici, pleaders' assistants, 196, et 
n., 216. 

Praises of all men to be secured, 19. 

Precepts addressed to Q. Cicero, 10. 

Prevarication, the legal meaning of, 64, 
et n. 

Promises of adherence made to M. Ci- 
cero, 29. 

Proof, two kinds of matter for the pur- 
pose of, 253. 

Property, reproof of Q. Cicero respecting 
the disposition of, 26. 

Protan^oras, the rhetorician, 409 ; an es- 
sayist. 413. I 

Protogenes, the Greek painter, 4^0. 

Proverbs may be applied in oratory, 297. 

Ptolemy Auletes, king of Alexandria, 
41, et n. 

Publius, a common praenomen among 
the Romans ; see passim. 

Publius Afdcanus, 201, 264, 423. 

Publius, C. saying of, 302. 

Punishments necessary to inflict on the 
guilty, 126, 127. 

Punnmg, anecdotes of, 292—294. 

Pupian law, 58. 

Pyrrhonians, sect of, 349. 

Pythagoras, 372. 

Pythagoreans, the, 153; Italy formerly 
full of, 264. 

QujESTOR, duties of the, 6. 

" Quasi dedita opera," remark on, 166 n. 

Questions to be employed in controversy, 

363, et seq. 
Quintius, L. the orator, 467. 
Quintus, the son of Quintus Cicero, 46, 

47. 
Quintus Curtius lauded by Cicero, 76. 
Quintus Marcius Rex, 255, et n. 
Quintus Publicenus, statue of, 28. 
Quirinalia, the, 44. 

Racilius the senator, his speech, 39, 40. 

Ranters of Rome, 452, 453. 

'PaOvixoTepa, definition of, 65. 

Reatinus, L. O. remarks on, 473 

Rebuke, severity of, 322. 

Repartees, 299. 

Reproof must be treated -with eloquence, 

234; familiar reproof often amusing, 

305. 
Republic, dangerous state of the, 29; 

Cicero's account of the situation of the, 

77; Cicero's anxieties respecting its 

difficulties, 88. See Rome, 
Republics may be happy, if governed by 

wisdom, 14. 
Reputation, to be cultivated, 4; necessity 

of maintaining it when earned, 20. 



Respondendi de jure, the custom, 197 n. 

Rhetoric, masters of, 157; books of, 157; 
on the study of, 265, 266 ; Latin teach- 
ers of, 358. 

Rhetoricians, 164, 165 ; their mode of 
reasoning, 363; of Athens, 409; their 
mode of teaching, 409 ; opposed by 
Socrates, 409. 

Rhythm and harmony essential in ora- 
tory, 331, 346. 

Ridicule, 304. 

Ridiculous, what are the several kinds 
of the, 289; in things, 291; in words, 
291 ; sometimes slides into scurrility, 
292 ; not always wit, 294. 

Roman language, its purity corrupted by 
strangers, 479. 

Rome, political struggles in, 2, 29, 62, 88, 
90, 119, 120 ; general licentiousness in, 
11; excessive taxation for the games 
at, 13, et n. ; great flood at, 84; civU 
commotions in, 99, 102, 103, et seq., 110, 
111, 116; under the power of Lepidus 
and Antony, 123, 124; her pecuniary 
difficulties, 135; the capitation tax re- 
sisted, 135, et n. ; Cicero's portraiture 
of her subjugation, 136 — 141 ; early 
orators of, 415, et seq.: orators con- 
temporary with Cato, 422 ; on the age 
and merits of the orators of, 435, et 
seq.; contemporary orators of, 453; 
their treatment, 496, 497 ; overthrow of 
the commonwealth of, 504. 

Romulus, 152, 

Roscius, the Roman actor, 174, 215, 216 ; 
his perfection in acting, 175, 361; his 
judgment of action, 288. 

Rufius, C. remarks on, 479 ; his speech, 
480. 

Rufus, his discourse on the passions, 
&c. 279, et seq. ; on strokes of wit and 
humour, 283—286. 

Rules of art not necessary in the elo- 
quence of common things, 234. 

Rullus, the law of, 1, 21. 

Rusca, M. P. jesting of, 299. 

Rusticellus, C. remarks on, 449. 

Ruta, meaning of, 286 n. 

Rutilius, 191; his high character, 206, 
2U7 ; sent into exile, 207 n. ; anecdote 
of, 305 ; his qualities as an orator, 424, 
425, 432, 433. 

Sacramento, explained, 154 n. 

Salinator, L. jest on, 302. 

Sallust, 79 ; his opinion of Cicero's work 

on the best form of government, 81. 
Salvidienus, 113. 
Salvius, 73, 75. 
Samos, in Asia Minor, 12. 
Sannio, why so called, 294 n. 
Sardinia, an unhealthy island, 45, et n. 
Satrius, the lieutenant of Trebonius. 

110. 
Sayings, called Dicta, 284. 
Scaevola, the pontiff; 184 w. 



520 



INDEX. 




Scaevola, M. M. a candidate for the con- 
sulship, G3, et n. 
Scaevola, P. 186, et n.\ his acuteness, 

431. 
Scaevola, Q. the tribune, 27, 184, 185, 
463 ; one of the orators of Cicero's 
Dialogues, 142, 150, etseg.; his great 
learning, 190; accusation against, 3(J5, 
et n. ; an able civilian, 442: his merits 
as an orator, 443 ; pleadings of, 457. 
Scaurus, Cicero's speech prepared for, 
70 ; impeached for bribery, 7Q, 77 ; 
cast off by Pompey, 86 ; defended by 
Cicero, 72; witty reproof of, 305; his 
oratory, 432, 433, 439. 
Science necessary to the orator, 353. 
Sciences, a knowledge of, essential to 
oratory, 193 ; extent of the, not to be 
dreaded, 357 ; their grandeur dimi- 
nished by the distribution of their 
parts, 3G9 ; comprehended by certain 
distinguished individuals, 369, 370. 
Scipio the elder, jesting of, 299. 
Scipio, Lucius, remarks on, 451. 
Scipio, P. the Roman orator, 422 ; notices 
of, 437; called the darling of the peo- 
ple, 463. 
Scopas, anecdote of, 325, 326. 
Scribonius, L. 206. 
Sculptors of Greece, 420. 
Sculpture, a single art, though possess- 
ing different styles, 339. 
Self-respect, to be supported, 10. ♦ 

Sempronii, T. and C. 152. 
Sempronius, A. 293. 

Senate of Rome, Cicero's account of its 
proceedings, 39 ; violent contests in 
the, 43, 47, 64 ; proceedings in the, 49 ; 
its usages should be known to the 
orator, 183. 
Septumuleius, jest on, 301. 
Sergius aurata, 189. 
Serjeant, duties of his office, 7, et n. 
Serranus, Domesticus, funeral of, 86. 
Sertorius, Q,. remarks on, 453. 
Service, right of, explained, e>7 n. ; law 

of, 189, 190, etn. 
Servilia, the mother of Brutus, Cicero's 

visit to, 133, et n. 
Ser villus, 39, 73, 81, 99; Cicero's ani- 
madversions on, 95 ; jesting of, 299 ; • 
notices of, 483. 
Servilius the younger, 43. 
Servius narrowly escapes conviction, 50. 
Servius Pola, brutal character of, 58. 
Servius Tullius, 162. 
Sestius, the friend of Cicero, 36; im- 
peached, 44, 45; his acquittal, 45, 
46. 
Severus Antistius, the senator, 40. 
Sextantis, non esse, a punning expres- 
sion, 296, etn. 
Sextilius, Q. the senator, 40. 
Sexti'us, C. joke on, 292. 
Ship, arrangement and art of a, 384, 
S85. 



Sicilians, their first attempts to write 
precepts on the art of speaking, 413. 

Sicinius, Cn. jest of, 465 ; a speaker of 
some reputation, 481. 

Signet-ring, importance of its proper 
use, 7. 

Silanus, D. remarks on, 473. 

Silanus, M. remarks on, 439. 

Similarity, arguments to be drawn from, 
268. 

Similes, not to be too far-tetched, 379. 

Similitudes, jests derived from, 300. 

Simonides, of Ceos, inventor of the art 
of memory, 325, 326. 

Sisenna, his qualifications as an orator, 
469, 479. 

Slaves, how far they are to be trusted, 9. 

Smart sayings, 294. 

Snow, black, 58. 

Socrates, his Phaedrus of Plato, 150; 
sayings of, 159, 199; his defence before 
his judges, 208 ; condemned through 
want of skill in speaking, 208; his 
ironical wit, 302, 491 ; his great genius 
and varied conversation, 348 ; various 
sects of philosophers who followed 
him, 349 ; opposed to the rhetoricians, 
409. 

Solon, oratory of, 409. 

Sounds, harmony of, 390. 

Speaking, many persons admirable in 
everything but this, 144, 145; the 
general study of, 146 ; it is noble to 
affect assemblies of men by, 150, 151 ; 
who may be considered a good speaker, 
167; what is the art of, 170; a mere 
difference about the word, 170, 171; 
nature and genius the great ends of, 
171 ; men by speaking badly become 
bad speakers, 180; the correct order 
of, 200 ; the whole success of, depends 
on three things, 253 ; three things re- 
quisite for finding argument, 262 ; 
on receiving instructions in the art of, 
266 ; the hearer should be favourable 
to the speaker, 270; morals and prin- 
ciples of the speaker to merit esteem, 
271 ; fashion of, to be varied, 321 ; 
different peculiarities of, 340 ; ancient 
masters in the art of, 368; various 
requisites in the art of, 391, et seg.; 
first attempts of the Sicilians to write 
precepts on the art of, 413; art of, 
studied beyond the limits of Greece, 
414. See Eloquence and Oratory. 
Speech, costume of, 178; requisites for 

a, 359. 
Speeches, mode of arranging, 314, et 
seq. ; exordium of, 316 ; narration, 
318; statement of facts, 319; less dis- 
play required before the senate than 
the people, 320 ; on the treatment of 
different subjects, 321, et seq. ; use of 
panegyric in, 322, 323 ; the most 
ornate which spread over the widest 
field, 366. 



INDEX. 



521 



Spirit, not to be lowered, 4. 

Spoletinus, P. C. notices of, 483. 

Spondalia, remarks on the word. 275. 

Sputatilica, observations on tbe word, 
480, et n. 

Stabbing, charges of, 250. 

Stajenus, C. remarks on, 474. 

State, interests of the, should be learnt 
by the orator, 182. 

Statins, the freedman, his visit to Cicero, 
22 ; his undue influence, 23. 

Stellicidia, law of, 188. 

Stirps and gens, legal difference, 189. 

Stoics, the, 154 ; Antisthenes their 
founder, 349; their doctrine, 350; lan- 
guage of the, 435. 

Style in speaking, every age has pro- 
duced a peculiar one, 246, 247-; metri- 
cal harmony of, 331, 387, 388; to be 
ornamented with a tasteful choice of 
words, 331, 346, etseq. ; a well-adjusted 
one established in Athens, 409. 

Styles of the Greek orators, 435. 

*' Suavitate'prope aequal em, "meaning of 
the phrase, 31 n. 

Subjects of inquiry, the various modes of 
treating, 364. 

Sulpicius, C. the Roman orator, 422. 

Sulpicius, P. one of the personages of 
Cicero's Dialogues, 142, et seq. ; his 
first appearance in the forum, 244; his 
great improvement in oratory, 245 ; 
death of, 335 ; his faults of pronuncia- 
tion, 344; remarks on, 444, 445, 460, 
461. 

Sylla, taxes levied by, 16. 

Symbols, use of, in artificial memory, 



Tatjriscus, saving of, 399. 

Taurus, M. 68. 

Taxation, Asia Minor relieved from, 13. 

Taxes, on the collection of, by farmers, 
16; necessity of, 16. 

Tellus, temple of, 71. 

Temper, to be preserved, 18. 

*' Tempora," explanation of, 187. 

♦* Tenedian axe," origin of the phrase, 
55. 

Tenedians, curtailment of their liberty, 
55. 

Tennis, playing at, 162. 

Tertia, the sister of Brutus, 93, 9Q. 

Thales, wisdom of, 371. 

Themistocles, his memory-, 311 ; elo- 
quence of, 409; an orator, 411; death 
of, 412. 

Theodorus, a writer of orations, 413. 

Theophrastus, 154, 156, 157 ; his thought 
on style, 387; erudition of, 411; his 
sweetness of style, 435 ; anecdote of, 
450. 

Theopompus, 26, 57; the historian, 236. 

Iheramenes, writings of, 246, et n.; elo- 
quence of, 409. 

Thesis, explanation of, 385 n. 



Thessalonica, exile of Cicero to, 30, 31. 
Thorius, S. remarks on, 440. 
Thrasymachus, the rhetorician, 409. 
Thucydides, his excellence as an his* 

torian, 235. 
Tiberius Nero, 71. 
Timasus, the historian, 236. 
Timanthes, the Greek painter, 420. 
Time-servers, their odious qualities, 213. 
Timidity, natural to the orator, 173, 174. 
Timotheus, talents of, 372. 
Tineas, T. anecdote of, 4o0. 
Tiro, 70; Cicero's freedman, 73. 
Tisias, 166. 

Titius, C. remarks on, 448, 449. 
Titius, S. 233, 295; remarks on, 468. 
Titius, T. 50. 

Tones of the voice, 396, 397. 
Tongue, exercise of the, 181. 
Torquatus, L. 78; remarks on, 473; 

notices of, 481. 
Torquatus, T. notices of, 475. 
"Tragoediis suis," explanation of, 203, 
Trail es, in Lydia, 9. 
Treason, the law of, 251. 
Treaties and conventions should be 

familiar to the orator, 182. 
Trebatius, afrier'^ of r^ot-m fio. 61, 69. 
Trebonius, 70; ^ ,.^ ■-■"' ,: .» 
Trees, harmony 

Trials, on the c . . • 

Triarius, notice 
Tribune ship, ' 

Curtius a car . 
Tribute, diffici, . 

135. 
Trifling jests, : 
Trinummus, t 
Triumvii-ate o 
Trouble gives 

voice, 398. 
Truth has the advantage over imitation, 

396. 
Tubero, the lieutenant of Q. Cicero, 6. 
Tubero. Q. M. the orator, 434. 
Tuditanus, C. the orator, 427. 
Tullia, daughter of Cicero, betrothed to 

Crassipes, 46, 47 ; Cicero's sorrow for, 

115, 
Tullius, M. the inform-er, 44. 
Turius. L. remarks on, 472. 
Tuscenius, complained- of by Cicero, 10, 

24. 
Tutor, the old mimic, 298. 
Twelve Tables, laws of the, 1 85, 195. 
Tyrannio, 46, 80, 83. 
Tyranny, remarks of Brutus on, 123—' 

133. 
Tyrians, embassy from the, 58. 

Universe, harmony and beauty ot the, 

384. 
Urania, a work so called, 52. 

Valerius, L. orator}^ of, 415. 
Valerius, M. the Dictator, 415. 



y 



522 



INDEX. 



Valerius, Q. the most learned of all the 

Latins, 344. 
Valerii, Q,. and D. remarks on, 449. 
Vargula, witticism of, 292, 293. 
Varian law, the, 461. 
Varius, Q. remarks on, 466. 
Varro, the historian, 417; remarks on, 

449 ; erudition of, 461, 481. 
Varrus, P. L. witty saying of. 294. 
Vatinius, his motioiL in the senate, 22 ; 

defended by Cicero, 65 ; letter of, 89. 
Velia, Cicero meets Brutus at, 124. 
Vclina, remarks on, 452. 
Velleius, C. the philosopher, 353. 
Velocius, Q. master of the gladiators, 

356. 
Venafrum, 67, 68. 

Vergilius, the associate of Q. Cicero, 25. 
Verres, his rapacity, 5 n. 
Verrucosus, Q. M. a good speaker, 416. 
Verses often harmoniously introduced, 

297. 
Vespa, T. 295. 
**Veste," meaning of, 183 n. 
Vettius, Q. remarks on, 449. 
Vetus, Antistius, the friend of Brutus, 
93 ; a friend to the commonwealth, 100. 
"^- "ius, 52, 72, 73. 

us, M. the stoic, 354. 

:e assumes a particular tone of 

, 397. 

IS, M. remarks on, 452. 

md moderation more to be relied 

an fortune, 4. 

public, of Quintus Cicero, 6 ; 

) is eloquent possesses all the, 1 64; 

nt kinds of, 323, 324; a know- 

:)f, necessary to the orator, 325. 

*^ Q. L. remarks on, 452. 



Voice, exercise of the, 181; a certai 
tone of, to be cultivated, 344 ; tones i' 
the, like musical chords, 396, 397 
contributes most to effectiveness jy 
delivery, 399; a pitchpipe used fr- 
regulating the, 400. 

Volcatius, the praetor, 39. 

Will, a disputed case of, 190, 191; plea' 
ings in the case of a, 457, 458. 

Wisdom, derived from philosophy, 16' 
165 ; the power of eloquence so denom 
nated, 347. 

Wise men of Greece, the seven, 371. 

Wit, strokes of, 283 ; art has no conce: 
with, 288; consists in the though 
295. 

Wit and humour, strokes of, useful 
oratory, 283, et seq. 

Witticisms. See Jests. 

Words without sense valueless, 256; c 
the choice and arrangement of, 35: 
proper and improper, on the use c 
375, 370 ; metaphorically used, 376, 3/ "■ 
composition, collocation, and mod 
lation of, 382, et seq. 

Writing, controversies respecting f' 
interpretation of, 178; the best m 
deller and teacher of oratory, 180 ; co 
tests respecting the interpretation < 
251, 252. 

Xenocrates, the founder of the Ac 

demy, 349. 
Xenophon, the historian, 236. 

Zeuxis of Blandus, 23; his reputati 

and character, 24. 
Zeuxis, the Greek painter, 420. 



THE END. 



LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWKS AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET 
AND CHARING CROSS. 



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